i 



h 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 1 

Chap ^.-_ki_S_5!_^ 

She/f .b.4 

, ^^nd I 

I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^ 



ERRATA. 

Page 16, line l^,for " following" read above. 

„ 19, ,, 24, /o;" " page 7 " reff^Z page 9. 

„ 20, „ 30, /or " Cayenne " rertfZ Crassane. 

,, 41, /or «« Fig. 18 " read Fig. 19. 

,, 53, (note) /or " mutching " read mulching. 

,, 81, at foot, for " page 78 " read page 75. 

,, 84, line 18, /or "Fig. 18 " read Fig. 19. 

,, 84, ,. 20, /or " one" reafZ one side. 

„ 90, „ 7, for " page 81 " read page 76. 



THE 



MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN; 

OR 

THE CULTURE 

OF 

PYRAMIDAL AND BUSH 

FEUIT TEEES; 

WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR ROOT-PRUNING, 

&c., &c. 



" There is no kind of fruit, however delicious, that may not be deteriorated, 
or however worthless, that may not be ameliorated, by particular modes of 
management." — Dr. Lindley. 



i 



'^^y 



BY THOMAS RIVERS. 



FIFTEENTH EDITION. 




BOSTON: =M^K-^j ^^- jV-f-i-vu' 
J. E. TILTON & COMPANY. 
1870. 



o? 






x^^^ 



INTEODUCTION 



My attention was drawn to the benefits fruit trees 
derive from root-pruning and frequent removal about 
the year 1810. I was then a youth, with a most 
active fruit-appetite, and if a tree bearing superior 
fruit could be discovered in my father's orchard-like 
nursery, I was very constant in my visits to it. 

In those days there was in the old nursery, first 
cropped with trees by my grandfather about the 
middle of the last century, a "quarter" — i.e., apiece 
of ground devoted to the reception of refuse trees — 
of such trees as were too small or weak for customers, 
so that in taking up trees for orders during the 
winter they were left, and in spring all taken up 
and transplanted to the "hospital quarter," as the 
labourers called it. The trees in this quarter were 
often removed — they were, in nUrsery parlance, 
*' driven together " when they stood too thinly in 



INTRODUCTION. 



the ground ; or, in other words, taken up, often 
annually, and planted nearer together on the same 
piece of ground. This old nursery contained 
about eight acres, the soil a deep reddish loam, in- 
clining to clay, in which fruit trees flourished and 
grew vigorously. I soon found that it was but of 
little use to look among the young free-growing trees 
for fruit, but among the refuse trees, and to the 
" hospital quarter " I was indebted for many a 
fruit-feast — such Eibston Pippins ! such Grolden 
Pippins. 

When I came to a thinking age, I became 
anxious to know why those refuse trees never made 
strong, vigorous shoots like those growing in their 
immediate neighbourhood, and yet nearly always 
bore good crops of fruit. Many years elapsed before 
I saw " the reason why, " and long afterwards I was 
advised by a friend, a F.H.S., to write a crude, 
short paper on the subject, and send it to be read at 
a meeting of the Horticultural Society : this paper is 
published in their *' Transactions." I had then 
practised it several years ; so that I may now claim 
a little more attention if the old adage that " practice 
makes perfect " be worthy of notice. 

This littlfe work is not designed for the gardens and 
gai'deners of the wealthy and great, but for those who 
take a personal interest in fruit tree culture, and who 
look on their garden as a never-failing source of 



INTRODUCTION. 



amusement. In some few favoured districts, fi-uit 
trees, witliout any extra care in planting and after- 
management, will bear good crops, and remain 
healthy for many years. It is not so in gardens 
with unfavourable soils ; and they are greatly in the 
majorit}^ It is to those possessing such, and more 
particularly to the possessors of small gardens, that 
the directions here given may prove of value. The 
object constantly had in view is to make fruit trees 
healthy and fruitful by keeping their roots near the 
surface. The root-pruning and biennial or occasional 
removal so earnestly recommended are the proper 
means to bring about these results, as they place the 
roots within the influence of the sun and air. The 
ground over the roots of garden trees as generally 
cultivated is dug once or twice a-year, so that every 
surface-fibre is destroyed and the larger roots driven 
downwards : they, consequently, imbibe crude watery 
sap, which leads to much apparent luxuriance in the 
trees. This in the end is fatal to their well doing, 
for the vigorous shoots made annually are seldom or 
never ripened sufficiently to form blossom-buds. 
Canker then comes on, and although the trees do not 
die they rarely give fruit, and in a few years 
become victims of bad culture, existing in a sort of 
living death. 

There is, perhaps, no fruit tree that claims or 
deserves our attention equal to a pear. How 



INTRODIJCTION. 



delicious is a fine melting pear all tlie winter 
months ! and to what a lengthened period in the spring 
may they be brought to table ! Till lately, Beurre 
Bance has been our best spring pear ; but this is a 
most uncertain variety, rarely keeping till the end of 
May, and often ripening in January and February. 

The Belgian pears, raised many years since by the 
late Major Esperen, and more recently by Monsieur 
Grregoire, are likely for the present to be the most 
valuable for prolonging the season of rich melting 
pears ; and of these Josephine de Malines and 
Bergamotte d 'Esperen are especially deserving of 
notice ; they have the excellent quality of ripening 
slowly. But improvement will, I have no doubt, yet 
take place ; for pears are so easily raised from seed, 
and so soon brought into bearing by grafting or 
budding them on the quince stock, that new and 
valuable late pears will soon be as plentiful as 
new roses. 

In the following pages it will be seen that I 
strongly advocate the culture of p3nramidal fruit 
trees. This is no new idea with me. I have paid 
many visits to the Continental gardens during the 
greater portion of my active life of business, and 
have always admired their pyramidal trees when 
well managed, and I have for many years cultivated 
them for my amusement ; but, owing to a seem- 
ing prejudice against them among some English gar- 



Ds'TEODUCTION. 



deners, I was for some time deterred from re- 
commending tliem, for I thouglit tliat men older tlian 
myself must know better; and when I heard some 
of our market-gardeners and large fruit-growers in 
the neighbourhood of London scoff at pears grafted 
on the quince stock, as giving fruit of a very in- 
ferior flavour, I concluded, like an Englishman, that 
the foreigners were very ignorant, and very far behind 
us in the culture of fruit trees. 

It was only by repeated visits to foreign gardens that 
this prejudice was dispelled; and when I saw the 
beautiful pear trees in the Jarden des Plantes at 
Paris under the management of Monsieur Cappe, 
alluded to in Gardeners^ Chronicle, No. 28, 1847, I 
felt convinced that our neighbours excelled us in the 
management of fruit trees adapted to the open 
borders of oiu* gardens. I have, therefore, endeavoured 
to make the culture of pyramidal trees easy to the 
uninitiated ; and, having profited largely by experience 
in attending to it with my own hands, I trust that my 
readers will benefit by the result. 

A humid mild climate seems extremely favourable 
to the well-doing of the pear on the quince stock. 
Jersey, with its moist warm climate, as is well known, 
produces the finest pears in Europe : these are for 
the most part from trees on quince stocks. The 
western coast of Scotland, I have reason to know, is 
favourable for the culture of pear trees on the quince ; 



INTRODUCTION. 



and within these very few years Ireland has proved 
remarkably so, more particularly in the south, where 
some of our finest varieties of pears on quince stocks 
are cultivated with perfect success. 




PREFACE TO THE FIFTEENTH EDITION. 



In giving the fiffceentli thousand of my little book 
to the public I trust I may be allowed to express 
my pleasure and my gratitude for its success,' — 
perfectly unprecedented in books devoted to horti- 
culture. The reception given to it by those 
numerous and increasing horticultural amateurs who 
seem to love to devote their leisure to the culture of 
fruit and fruit trees, has been to me a source of much 
pleasure. For some twenty-five or thirty years have 
I watched the growth of this taste in England, and 
more particularly in those who garden with their 
own hands and heads : it is such men that form 
the true vanguard of fruit culturists, for they almost 
invariably improve on any suggestion given by a 
writer; and if I wanted them, I could fill a volume 
with letters from clever amateurs who have given 
new ideas, always suggestive if not always practi- 
cable. As a prominent but not new feature in this 
enlarged edition, I may refer to the management, 
and above aU, the protection of low lateral cordon 
fruit trees. I have also pointed out more 
forcibly than in former editions, the cai)ability 



X PREFACE TO THE FIFTEENTH EDITION. 

of growing choice pears and a^^ples on any low cheap 
walls, and also against walls in kitchen gardens 
not fully furnished with trees— in short, in all bare 
spaces so often found between wall trees in old 
gardens. These methods of cultivating choice pears 
and the finer kinds of American apples are worthy 
of much more attention than they have hitherto 
received. 

The method of cultivating the Prince Engelbert 
and one or two other kinds of plums as vertical 
single cordons, has been practised here for some 
few years ; it is original, highly worthy of attention, 
and may be made a profitable venture, not only 
for the amateur but for the market-gardener. 

The management of those charming structures — 
ground vineries, is in this edition more fully gone into 
than before ; in short all the modes of culture 
hitherto recommended have been revised and made 
perfect as practice can make them, for it must be 
recoUected that all the modes of culture here 
recommended have been well tested, and no foreign 
practice recommended till found adapted to our 
wet English climate, the mean temperature of 
which is just about two degrees too low for the 
choice kinds of fruit to ripen without assistance. 

July, 1868. 



THE 



MINIATUEE FRUIT GAEDEN, 



ETC., ETC. 



PYBAMIDAIi PEAR THEES ON THE QUINCE STOCK. 

There is no description of fruit tree more interesting 
to cultivate in our gardens than the pyramid, — a name 
adopted from the French, the originators of this 
species of culture, The word conical, would, perhaps, 
convey a better idea of the shape of such trees, but as 
pyramidal trees are now becoming familiar things in 
English gardens, it is scarcely worth while to attempt 
to give a new name to these very pretty garden trees. 
For gardens with a moderately deep and fertile soil, 
pears budded on the quince stock will be found to 
make by far the most fruitful and quick-bearing 
trees; indeed, if prepared by one or two removals, 
their roots become a perfect mass of fibres, and their 
stems and branches full of blossom-buds. Trees of 
this description may be planted in the autumn, with 
a certainty of having a crop of fruit the first season 
after planting, — always recollecting that a spring fi'ost 
may destroy the blossoms unless the trees are 
protected. It must always be recollected that pears 

B 



THE MINIATURE FRUIT GABDEK. 



on quince stocks are strictly garden trees, and not 
adapted for orchards. 

The most eligible season for planting pyramidal 
pear trees is during the months of November and 
December, bat they may be planted even until the end 
of March; in planting so late, no fruit must be 
expected the first season. Still I ought to say here 
that I have frequently removed pear trees on the 
quince stock in March and April just as the blossom- 
bads were bursting, and have had fine fruit the same 
season, particularly if sharp frosts occurred in May. 
The buds being retarded the blossoms opened after the 
usual period, and thus escaped. The experiment is 
quite worth trying in seasons when the buds swell 
very early. 

If root-pruned pyramidal trees be planted, it will 
much assist them if about half the blossom-buds are 
thinned out with a penknife just before they open; 
otherwise these root-pruned trees on the quince stock 
are so full of them that the tree receives a check in 
supporting such an abundance of bloom. About ten 
or fifteen fruit may be permitted to ripen the first 
season ; the following season one to two dozen will be 
as many as the tree ought to be allowed to bring to 
perfection; increasing the number as the tree increases 
in vigour, always remembering that a few full-sized 
and well-ripened pears are to be preferred to a greater 
number inferior in size and quality. 

In the engraving (Fig. 1 on the opposite page) I 
have given a faithful report of a pyramidal tree of the 
Beurre de Capiaumont pear budded on the quince : 
this was taken in 1846 ; the tree was then about ten 
years old, and had been root-pruned three times. 
Nothing could be more interesting than this tree, only 
six feet high, laden with fruit of extraordinary beauty; 
or in my soil, pears on quince stocks produce fruit of 



PTKAMIDAL PEAR TREES. 




FlQ. 1 



4-; THE MINIATURE FBUIT GARDEN. 

nmcli greater beauty and of finer flavour than those 
on pear stocks. I have, however, introduced the 
figure as much to show its imperfection as its beauty : 
it will be observed that its lower tiers of branches are 
not sufficiently developed; this was owing to neglect 
when the tree was young — the upper branches were 
suifered to grow too luxuriantly. Summer pinching 
in the youth of the tree is the only remedy for this 
defect, if it be not well furnished below; and a severe 
remedy it is, for all the young shoots on the upper 
tiers, including the leader, must be pinched closely in 
!May and June, till the lower ones have made young 
shoots of a sufficient length to give uniformity to the 
tree. This requires much attention 

The quenouille, or tying-down system, is not prac- 
tised in France at the present day; and, in truth, it 
does look very barbarous and unnatural. The trees 
trained in this manner in the Potagerie at Versailles 
are mostly on quince stocks; they are from twenty to 
forty years old, and are very productive, but very 
ugly ; all the shoots from the horizontal and depressed 
branches are cropped off apparently in July, as 
M. Puteau, the director, is, I believe, adverse to the 
pinching system of M. Cappe. I have not for many 
years observed a single quenouille in Belgium; all are 
pyramids, even in the gardens of the cottagers, and in 
general they are very beautiful and productive trees. 
In many cases, when on the pear stock, they are too 
luxuriant, and require root-pruning : but this is not 
understood by continental fruit-tree cultivators. 

Pyramids and bushes are the trees best adapted for 
small gardens, and not standards such as are planted 
in orchards. To those conversant with such matters, 
I need only point to the very numerous instances of 
rich garden ground entirely ruined by being shaded 
by large spreading standard, or half-standard unpruned 



THE YOUNG PYRAMID. • O 

fruit trees. Now, by cultivating pyramidal pears on 
the quince — apples in the same form on the paradise 
stock — the cherry as pyramids and dwarf bushes on 
the Cerasus Mahaleb — and the plum as a pyramidjil 
tree — scarcely any ground will be shaded, and more 
abundant crops and finer fruit will be obtained. 

THE YOUNG PYRAMID. 

If a young gardener intends to plant, and wishes to 
train up his trees so that they will become quite per- 
fect in shape, he should select plants, one year old 
from the bud or graft, with single upright stems ; 
these will, of course, have good buds down to the 
junction of the graft with the stock. The first spring, 
a tree of this description should be headed down, so as 
to leave the stem about eighteen inches long. If the 
soil be rich, from five to six and seven shoots will be 
produced ; one of these must be made the leader, and 
if not inclined to be quite perpendicular, it must be 
fastened to a stake. As soon, in summer, as the 
leading shoot is ten inches long, its end must be 
pinched ofi"; and if it pushes forth two or more 
shoots, pinch off all but one to three leaves, leaving 
the topmost for a leader. The side shoots will, in most 
cases, assume a regular shape ; if not, they may be 
this first season tied to slight stakes to make them 
grow in the proper direction. This is best done by 
bringing down and fastening the end of each shoot to 
a slight stake, so that an open pyramid may be formed 
— for if it is too close and cypress- like, enough air is 
not admitted to the fruit. They may remain unpruned 
till the end of August, when each shoot must be 
shortened to within eight buds of the stem. This will 
leave the tree like the annexed figure (Fig. 2), and no 
pruning in winter will be required. 



THE MINIATURE FKUIT GARDEN, 



The second season tbe tree will make vigorons 
growth ; the side shoots which were topped last 
August will each put forth three, four, or more 
shoots. In June, as soon as these have made five 
or six leaves, they must be pinched off to three leaves, 
and if these spurs put forth shoots, which they often do, 
every shoot must be pinched down to one or two leaves 
all hut the leading shoot of each side branch ; this must 
be left on to exhaust the tree of its superabundant sap, 
till the end of August, unless the tree is being trained 
as a compact pyramid, see p. 11. The perpendicular 
leader must be topped once or twice ; in short, as soon 
as it has grown ten inches, pinch off its top, and if it 




Fig. 2 




Fig. 3 



8 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEIf. 

break into two or three shoots, pinch them all bnt the 
leader, as directed for the first season : in a few years 
most symmetrical trees may be formed. 

When they have attained the height of six or eight 
feet, and are still in a vigorous state, it will be neces- 
sary to commence root-pruning, to bring them into a 
fruitful state. 

If some of the buds in the stem of a young tree 
prove dormant, so that part of it is bare and without 
a shoot where there should be one, a notch, half an 
inch wide, and nearly the same in depth, should be 
cut in the stem jast above the dormant bud. If this 
be done in February, a young shoot will break out in 
the summer.^ 

I have thus far given directions for those who are 
inclined to rear their own pyramids. Time and atten- 
tion are required, but the interest attached to well- 
trained pyramids, will amply repay the young 
cultivator. 

THE MATURE PYEAMID. 

The preceding" figure (Fig. 3) is a pyramidal tree 
in its second and third year, and such as it ought to 
be in July before its leading side shoots and leading 
upright shoot are shortened. This, as I have said, is 
best done towards the end of August. The shortening 
must be made at the marks — ; all the side shoots must 
be shortened in this manner, and the leading shoot ; 
no further pruning will be required till the following 
summer. The spurs a, a, a, are the bases of the 
shoots that have been pinched in Jane ; these will the 
following season form fruit-bearing spurs. The best 

(1) Bare places in the stems of pyramids, and in the branches of espaliers 
or wall trees, may be budded towards the end of August with blossom-buds 
taken from shoots two years old . This is a very interesting mode of furnish- 
ing a tree with fruit -bearing buds. 



BUMMER PINCHING. 9 

instrnment for summer and autumnal pruning is a 
pair of hooked pruning scissors, called also "rose 
nippers." 

As the summer pinching of pyramidal pears is the 
most interesting feature in their culture, and perhaps 
the most agreeable of all horticultural occupations, I 
must endeavour to give plain instructions to carry it 
out. 

The first season after the planting, about the middle 
or end of June, the side buds and branches will put 
forth young shoots ; each will give from one to tlivee 
or four. Select that which is most horizontal in its 
growth (it should be on the lower part of the branch, 
as the tree will then be more inclined to spread) for a 
leader to that branch, and pinch off all the others to 
three leaves (see Fig. 3, a, a, a). If these pinched 
shoots again push, suffer them to make three leaves, 
and then pinch them to two leaves ; but if the hori- 
zontal branch has a good leader, it will take off all the 
superfluous sap, and prevent the pinched spurs from 
breaking ; the buds will only swell, and the following 
season they will be fruit spurs. The upper shoots of 
the tree, say to about two feet from its top, should be 
pinched a week before the lower shoots : this gives 
strength to those on the lower part of the tree. 

Fig. 4 is a side branch in June, with its shoots not 
yet pinched ; Fig. 5 is a side branch with its shoot 
a, a, pinched in June; b is the leader of the side 
branch, which should be pinched or cut off at the end 
of August to c. 

In spring the perpendicular leader of the preceding 
year's growth will put forth numerous shoots, which 
must be pinched in June in the following manner : 
those nearest the base, leave six inches in length, 
gradually decreasing upwards, leaving those next the 
young leading shoot only two inches long. The 



10 



THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 



leader of these ready-formed pyramids need not be 
shortened in summer, as directed for younger trees ; it 
may be suffered to grow till the horizontal leaders are 
shortened in August, and then left six or eight inches 
in length ; but if the trees are to be kept to six or 
seven feet in height under root-pruning, this leading 
shoot may be shortened to two inches, or even cut 
close down to its base. For tall pyramids of ten, 
twelve, or fifteen feet, it may be left from eight to ten 





Fig. 4 



Fio. 5 



SUMMER FINCHING. 11 

inclies in length till the required height be attained ; 
it may then be cut to within two inches of its base 
every season. 

I ought here to remark that pear trees differ in their 
habits to an extraordinary degree : some make shoots 
most robust and vigorous ; others under precisely the 
same treatment, are very delicate and slender. In the 
final shortening in August this must be attended to ; 
those that are very vigorous must not have their 
shoots pruned so closely as those that are less so; 
indeed, almost every variety will require some little 
modification in pruning, of which experience is by far 
the best teacher. It will, I think, suffice, if I give 
the following directions for shortening the leaders of 
the side shoots, and the perpendicular leaders : — All 
those that are very robust, such as Beurre d'Amanlis, 
Vicar of Winkfield, Beurre Diel, &c., shorten to eight 
or ten inches, according to the vigour of the individual 
tree ; those of medium vigour, such as Louise Bonne of 
Jersey, Marie Louise, and Beurre d'Aremberg, to six 
inches ; those that are delicate and slender in their 
growth, hke Winter Nelis, to four inches ; but I must 
repeat that regard must be had to the vigour of the 
tree. If the soil be rich, the trees vigorous, and not 
root-pruned, the shoots may be left the maximum 
length; if, on the contrary, they be root-pruned, and 
not inclined to vigorous growth, they must be pruned 
more closely. 

COMPACT PYRAMIDS. 

If pyramidal fruit trees, either of pears, apples, 
plums, or cherries, are biennially removed, or even 
thoroughly root-pruned, without actually removing 
them, summer pinching becomes the most simple of 
all operations. The cultivator has only to look over 
his trees twice a week during June, July, and August 



12 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

(penknife in hand), and cut or pinch in every shoot 
on the lateral or side branches that has made four 
leaves or more, down to three full-sized leaves. It is 
just possible that the three buds belonging* to these 
three leaves will put forth three young shoots : as soon 
as they have made their four or five leaves, they must 
be shortened to two, and so on with everij young shoot 
made during the summer, shortening the leading shoot 
also to three leaves. This method of close pinching 
represses the vigour of the tree to a great extent, and, 
in soils that are not very rich, trees under it will not 
require root-pruning. It is a most agreeable method 
of treating pyramidal trees, for no straggling shoots 
are seen, and in small neatly-kept gardens this is a 
great relief. The pinched shoots in these compact 
pyramids become too much crowded with blossom- 
spurs, these should therefore be thinned in winter with 
a sharp pruning-knife, removing at least one-third of 
them. 

EOOT-PRUNING OF PYRAMIDAL PEAR TREES ON 
QUINCE STOCKS. 

Before entering on the subject of root-pruning of 
pear trees on quince stocks, I must premise that 
handsome and fertile pyramids, more particularly of 
some free-bearing varieties, may be reared without 
this annual or biennial operation. If the annual 
shoots of the tree are not more than eight or ten 
inches long, no root-pruning need be done. I have 
a large plantation of pear trees on the quince stock, 
which have been made very handsome and fertile 
pyramids yet they have not been root-pruned, neither 
do I intend to root-prune them. But I wish to impress 
upon my readers that my principal object is to make 
trees fit for small gardens, and to instruct those who 
are not blessed with a large garden, how to keep the 



ROOT-PBUNINO. 13 

trees perfectly under control : and this can best be 
done by annual, or at least biennial attention to their 
roots ; for if a tree be suffered to grow three or more 
years, and then be root-pruned, it will receive a check 
if the spring" be dry, and the crop of fruit for one 
season will be jeopardized. Therefore, those who are 
disinclined to the annual operation, and yet wish to 
confine the growth of their trees within limited 
bounds by root-pruning, say once in two years 
should only operate upon half of their trees one 
season ; i they will thus have the remaining half in 
an unchecked bearing state ; and those who have 
ample room and space may pinch their pjrramids in 
summer, and sufi'er them to grow to a height of 
fifteen or twenty feet without pruning their roots. 
I have seen avenues of such trees in Belgium, really 
quite imposing. In rich soils, where the trees grow 
so freely as to make shoots eighteen inches in length 
in one season, they may be root-pruned annually with 
great advantage. 

The following summary will perhaps convey my 
ideas respecting the management of pyramids and 
bushes when cultivated as garden trees. In small 
gardens with rich soils, either root-prune or remove 
all the trees annually early in November. In larger 
gardens perform the same operation biennially at the 
same season. For very large gardens with a dry, 
good sub-soil, in which all kinds of fruit trees grow 
without any tendency to canker, and when large 
trees are desired, neither remove nor root-prune, but 
pinch the shoots in summer, thin them in winter 

(1) In The Journal of HnrticuUure for 1862, pag-e 531, Mr. Lee, of Cleve- 
don, gives an account of his root-pruning practice, which he carries out 
extensively on some hundreds of trees. It appears to be an alternate system 
of root-pruning, and may be done as follow s : — Open a semicircular trench 
on one side of the tree, and prune all the roots that can be got at ; the 
following season open a trench of the same shape on the opposite side of 
the tree (so as to complete the circle), and prune all that can be found there. 
By this simple method the tree is never checked seriously in its growth, 
yet enough to make it form abundance of blossom-buds. 



14 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

when they become crowded, and thus make your 
trees symmetrical and fruitful. 

Pyramidal pear trees on the quince stock, where 
the fruit garden is small, the soil rich, and when 
the real gardening artist feels pleasure in keeping 
them in a healthy and fruitful state by perfect control 
over the roots, should be annually operated upon as 
follows : — A trench should be dug round the tree, 
about eighteen inches from its stem, every autumn, 
just after the fruit is gathered if the soil be sufficiently 
moist, — if not, it wiU be better to wait till the usual 
autumnal rains have fallen; the roots should then 
be carefully examined, and those inclined to be of 
perpendicular growth cut with the spade, which must 
be introduced quite under the tree to meet on all 
sides, so that no root can possibly escape amputation. 
All the horizontal roots should be shortened with a 
knife to within a circle of eighteen inches from the 
stem,i and all brought as near to the surface as pos- 
sible, filling in the trench with compost for the roots 
to rest on. The trench may then be filled with the 
compost (well-rotted dung and the mould from an 
old hotbed, equal parts, will answer exceedingly 
well) ; the surface should then be covered with some 
haK-rotted dung and the roots left till the following 
autumn brings its annual care. It may be found 
that after a few years of root-pruning, the circum- 
ferential mass of fibres will have become too much 
crowded with small roots ; in such cases, thin out 
some of the roots, shortening them at nine inches or 
one foot from the stem. This will cause them to give 
out fibres, so that the entire circle of three feet or 
more round the tree will be full of fibrous roots near 
the surface, waiting with open mouths for the 

(1) If they have not spread to this extent the first season, or even the 
Becond, they need not be pruned, but merely brought near to the Biuface 
and spread out. ^ 



BOOT-PRUNING. 15 

nourislimeiit annually given to them by surface 
dressings and liquid manure. 

Thus far for the gardener who does not mind 
extra trouble, — who, in short, feels real pleasure in 
every operation that tends to make his trees perfect 
in fruitfulness and symmetry. But it is not every 
amateur gardener that can do this, nor is it always 
required in the south of England, except for small 
gardens and in rich moist soils, in which pear trees 
are inclined to grow too vigorously. But with our 
too often cool moist summers in the Northern counties, 
annual root-pruning is quite necessary to make the 
trees produce well-ripened wood. In other cases, as 
I have before observed, shortening the shoots in sum- 
mer, taking care to produce a handsome pyramidal 
form, and if they are inclined to grow vigorously, 
biennial root-pruning will be quite sufficient. 

The following will be found a good selection of 
varieties for pyramidal trees on quince stocks. They 
may be planted in rows, five to six feet apart, or a 
square may be allotted to them, giving each plant 
five or six feet, which will be found amply sufficient 
for root-pruned trees. Some few esteemed sorts of 
pears do not grow well on quince stocks, unless 
*' double-grafted " — i.e., some free-growing sort is 
budded on the quince, and after having been suli'ered 
to grow for one or two seasons, the sort not so free- 
growing is budded or grafted on it. For ten 
varieties, placed in the order of their ripening, the 
undermentioned may with safety be recommended. i 

1. Summer Doyenne* July 

2. Beunti Gittarcl Au,t,^ust 

3. Bon Chretien (Williams')* September 

4. Beurre Superfin* October 

5. Fondante d'Au omne October 

6. Louise Bonne of Jersey* m <$■ e. October 

7. Doyenne du Cornice November 

(1) All the varieties recommended for pyramids may also be planted as 
espaliers to train to rails in the usual mode. 



16 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

8, Beurre d'Aremberg* December 

9. Josephine de Malines* March 

10. Bergamotte d'Esperen* (1) AprilandMay 

11. Tj'son August 

12. Cohnar d'Et^ September 

13. Baron de Mello* October 

14. Beurre Hardy* October 

15. Doyenne Oris e. October 

16. Conseiller de la Cour h. November 

17. Winter Nelis* December 

18. Beurre d'Anjou e. December 

19. Easter Beurre January 

20. Doyenne d'Alen9on March to May 

(In the follo-wing lists, varieties marked thus^* may 
be chosen by those who require only a few trees. )2 

The above succeed on the quince, and form excel- 
lent pyramids. 

ORNAMENTAL PYEAMIDAL PEAR TREES ON QUINCE STOCKS. 

There are some few varieties of pears, the trees of 
which may be made highly ornamental even on a 
well-dressed lawn, as they grow freely and form 
naturally beautiful cypress-like trees, at the same 
time their fruit is of first-rate quality. Such are 
Summer Beurre d'Aremberg, Baronne de Mello, 
Duchessed'Angouleme, Urbaniste, Alexandre Lambre, 
Beurre Hardy, White Doyenne, Grey Doyenne, 
Louise Bonne of Jersey, Passe Colmar, Zephirin 
Gregoire, Beurre Leonle Clerc, Delices d'Hardenpont, 
Prince Albert, Doyenne du Cornice, Bergamotte 
d'Esperen, and some others. 

PEAR TREES AS BUSHES ON THE QUINCE STOCK. 

It is only very recently that this mode of cul- 
tivating pear trees has struck me as being eligible, 
from having observed the fruit of some of the 

(1) This is a most abundant bearer. A pyramid in the garden of Thomas 
White, Esq,, which was root-pruned in the autumn of 1858, bore two 
bushels in 1859. 

(2) A very good light permanent label for pjTamidal and other fruit trees, 
is a small piece of zinc, painted with white-lead paint, and written on while 
moist with a strong black-lead pencil. It should be suspended from a side 
branch of the tree (not the stem) by a piece of stout copper wii'e. 



PEAR TREES AS BUSHES. 



17 



large heavy varieties, such, as Beurre Diel and 
Beurre d'Amanlis, so liable to be blown off pyramids 
by even moderate autumnal gales. The trees 
also of these and several other fine sorts of pears 
are difficult to train in the pyramidal form ; fhey 
are diffuse in their growth, and, with summer 
pinching, soon form nice prolific bushes, of which 
the following figure (Fig. 6), from nature, will give 
some idea. This summer pinching is quite neces- 
sary in bush culture, and is performed by pinching 
off the end of every shoot as soon as it has made 
four or five leaves, to three full-sized ones ; the buds 
at the base of these leaves will each put forth a 
shoot which should be pinched to two leaves ! 
these will again put forth young shoots, which 




18 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

should be pinclied to one leaf; this is tlie tldrd 
summer pinching, and probably in August a fourth 
may be required, as pear trees in a good soil and 
good climate are very persistent in their growth 
during the warm weather of summer. All the 
shoots after the second pinching should be pinched 
to one leaf. By repetition of this summer pinching 
the trees become crowded with spurs ; these will 
require to be thinned in winter, removing at least 
one half of them, for there is a great tendency in pear 
trees that are grafted on quince stocks to produce 
too many blossom buds. The biennial removal 
described below is also necessary, unless in very 
large gardens wher elarge spreading trees are wished 
for. Although the taking up and replanting a tree 
may seem formidable work, it is not so, for the 
roots, from being frequently removed, become so 
fibrous near the surface, that an active man can 
lift and replant one hundred trees in a day. I need 
scarcely add that if root-pruning, as described in page 
14, be preferred to removal, it may be practised. 

These bushes are admirably adapted for gardens 
exposed to winds, and if removed biennially they 
may be grown in the smallest of gardens with 
great advantage. This biennial removal or lifting, 
should be performed as follows : — A trench should 
be opened round the tree the width of a spade, and 
from twelve to fifteen inches deep ; the tree should 
then be raised with its ball of earth attached to its 
root intact. If the soil be light and rich, and the 
tree inclined to grow vigorously, making annual 
shoots of more than one foot in length, it may be 
replanted without any fresh compost ; but if, on 
the contrary, the soil be poor, and the tree stunted 
in its growth, the following materials may be 
used : In low situations near brooks and rivers, 
a black moor-earth is generally found; this un- 



PEARS ADAPTED FOR BUSH CULTURE. 19 

prepared is unfit for horticultural purposes, but if 
dug out and laid in a ridge, and one-eighth part 
of unslacked lime be spread over it, turning it 
immediately and mixing the lime with it, it will 
become in the course of five or six weeks an excel- 
lent compost for pear trees. It is a good practice 
to add half a bush si of burnt earth, or the same 
quantity of sand, to a barrowful of this moor-earth. 
Leaf mould (or rotten manure), loam, and sand, 
equal parts, form also an excellent compost ; ia 
planting, one wheelbarrowful to a tree will bo 
enough. In London suburban gardens, for which 
these trees are peculiarly adapted, no compost 
need be given to the trees in replanting, for 
the soil in them is generally rich. These bush 
trees offer two very great advantages, they are 
easily protected from spring frosts when in blossom, by 
covering them with tiffany, and they may be 
planted fi'om three to five feet apart, with great 
facility, so as to be eligible for very small gardens. 

In large gardens in situations exposed to the 
wind, large bushes may be desirable. In such 
cases the leading shoots on each branch may be 
pinched, as recommended for pyramids (page 7) ; 
but instead of pinching them to three leaves, they 
may be suffered to make ten leaves and then be 
pinched, leaving seven. The trees will, if treated in 
this manner, soon become large, compact, and fruitful. 

The following varieties are weU adapted for 
bush cidture, as they are spreading in their 
growth and difiicult to form into compact pyra- 
amids, although they may be made into spreading 
and prolific conical trees. It ought, however, to 
be mentioned that those sorts, such as Louise 
Bonne of Jersej^, which form handsome pyi-amids, 
make very pretty compact bushes by cutting out the 
central branch to within three feet of the ground ; 



20 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

SO that pyramids may be easily formed into buslies 
I may add that these bush pears produce the very 
finest fruit, from their being so near the heat and 
moisture-giving surface of the earth. 

In situations near the sea-coast, exposed to sea 
breezes, small fruit-gardens may be formed by 
enclosing a square piece of ground with a beech 
hedge or wooden fence, and planting it with bush 
trees. A piece of ground 500 square feet will be 
large enough to cultivate 30 trees at 4 feet apart 
in it, or 25 trees at 5 feet apart. Many a sea-side 
cottage may thus have its fruit-garden. 

LIST OF PEARS ADAPTED FOR BUSH CULTURE. 

Alexandre Bivoi't January 

Autumn Nelis October 

Beurre d'Amanlis September 

Beurre de Caen October 

Beurre de Ranee March 

Beurre Diel December 

Beurre Giffard August 

Beurre Goubault September 

Catillac (for baking) December 

Conseiller de la Cour November 

Doyenne Boussoch October 

Jalousie de Fontenay August 

Jargonelle August 

Joseph.ne de Malines March 

Leon le Clerc de Laval (for baking) March 

Marie Louise October 

Passe Cayenne February 

Prince of Wales (Hushye) December 

Victoria (Huyshe) November 

Winter Nelis' December 

Zephiiin Gregoire January 

PROTECTORS FOR PYRAMIDAL AND BUSH PEAR TREES. 

The weather in spring is often cold and ungenial 
for the blossoms of pear and other fruit trees ; in 
such seasons pyramids should be protected. This 
is best done by fixing four stout stakes round a 
tree ; these should be a little taller than the tree 
and then be Fawn off level. A square piece of 
calico, or any cheap canvas, should then be nailed, 
on the top of the stakes to form the roof, the like 



PROTECTORS FOR PEAR TREES. 



21 



material brought round the sides, and fastened to 
the stakes by small nails or tacks, from within 
eighteen inches of the ground to within eight 
inches of the top, thus leaving a space between 
the top and side covering for free ventilation, as the 
air when heated by the sun will rush out of the aper- 
ture at top in a continual stream. These flat-roofed 
square tents will generally insure a crop of fruit. 

Pea-sticks — i.e., stakes with the small brush- 
wood on them — stuck round each tree, and spruce 
or other fir branches, where these can be procured, 
are also good protectors. For bush trees hay is a 
capital protector, particularly from those still hoar 
frosts which are generally so destructive ; it shoidd 
be strewed lightly over them when they are just 
commencing to blossom. If some brushwood 



THE TIFFANY HOUSE PROTECTEB. 




Section of Tiffany House. 

sticks are placed round the bush so as to lean over 
it, the hay will adhere to the spray, and remain 
undisturbed by the wind. Tiff'any may be used to 
throw over pear bushes ; it is so light that it does 
no injury to the tender blossoms ; it should be 
taken off on sunny days. There is, perhaps, no 
better protector than old or new netting ; if woollen, 
all the better. This should be thrown over the 



22 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

trees two or three times thick, and suffered to 
remain on till the fruit is safe from frosts — i.e., till 
the end of May. 

Houses built with stakes or slight timber, and 
the roofs and sides covered with tiffany, have very 
recently been introduced and found efficient in 
protecting half-hardy plants from severe frost. 

I now propose to erect temporary houses of the 
same materials to protect dwarf and pyramidal 
fruit trees while they are in bloom, and I have no 
doubt but that they will lead to a new era in fruit 
gardening among amateurs, offering as they do a 
very cheap method of protection. A border or bed 
of fruit trees may be eight feet wide, and planted 
with three rows of bush fruit trees as shown in the 
above section, one row in the centre, and the other 
rows three feet from it, and the trees three feet apart 
in the rows, thus occupying six feet of the bed. 

A tiffany-house to cover the trees in a bed of 
the above width may be eight feet wide, three feet 
high at the sides, and five high in the centre. 

The roof of tiffany should be fastened to the 
rafters with shreds three or four times double, so 
as to make a thick pad, and either nailed on with 
short nails or fastened with screws, so that it may 
be easily taken to pieces annually the first week in 
June, for till then we are not safe from spring frosts. 
The tiffany-house should be placed over the trees 
the first week in March, unless the season be un- 
usually early, when the middle of February would 
be better. The sides should be loose, and be 
turned up night and day in mild weather while the 
trees are in bloom ; but in cold, sharp, windy 
weather in the blossoming season they should be 
kept down, and fastened to the upright stakes by 
tying or otherwise. 

A tiffany-house twenty-four feet long and eight 



PBAR TREES FOR WALLS. 23 

feet wiMe will thus shelter twenty-four trees, either 
bushes or pyramids ; if for the latter, the sides of 
the house should be four feet, and its centre seven 
to eight feet in height. If it be thought desirable 
to keep the trees in a comparatively small space, 
they may be removed biennially in October. If 
larger trees are desired, the house may be enlarged 
as the trees grow. A tiffany-house may be from 
one to 500 feet in length, and twenty in width if 
desirable, for there are no particular limits to its 
extent, only the effects of a " March wind" must 
be thought about when lofty and extensive houses 
are put up. As measures of economy the timber 
and tiffany should be placed in a dry place when 
removed, and the rafters fastened to the plate and 
ridge board with screws. A tiffany-house thus 
treated, "kindly and gently," will last for several 
years; and in places where the climate is suffi- 
ciently warm to ripen apricots, plums, pears, cher- 
ries and even early peaches, in the open air, they 
will, I have no doubt, be extensively employed, 

PEAR TREES ON THE QUINCE STOCK, TRAINED AS UPRIGHT 
CORDONS. 

The French gardeners employ the term cordon 
for the branch of a fruit tree on which the shoots 
have been pinched in so as to form a succession of 
blossom-buds. The term, as used by them, is 
expressive, and lately an interesting work has been 
published by the Eev. T. C. Brehaut, of Gluernsey, 
on this mode of training, under the title of *' Cor- 
don Training of Fruit Trees. " It is simply the 
pinching off* the ends of the shoots on a branch 
80 as to make them form blossom-buds, and fruit 
trees under this mode are planted in an oblique 
position on walls. "With pear trees on the quince 
stock the five branched vertical cordon will be 



24 



THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 



found a very convenient mode of training, for 
wlicli see Fig. 7. To carry out this mode of 
training, in April, 1849, I planted one of eaeli of 
some new and esteemed pears on quince stocks 
against a boarded fence, so tliat tliey would 
quickly come into bearing. The usual method 
of horizontal training I found would take up too 
much space, and I could not find room for half 
the number of trees I wished to plant. In this 
strait, an old idea came to my assistance — ^that of 
cutting pyramidal trees flat, and planting them 
against walls ; and then a modification of the idea 

A ITVE-BBANCHED VERTICAL CORDON PEAR TllEB. 










Fio 7 



PEAR TREES POR WALLS. 25 

came to liand viz., to plant horizontal espaliers, 
and to make tliem perpendicular. In the pre- 
ceding page is a figure of one of my five branched 
vertical cordon pear trees. (Fig. 7.) 

The shoots a, a, should be eight inches from the 
central shoot, and those marked b, b, the same 
distance from those marked a, a. This tree, with 
five branches, will thus occupy thirty-two inches 
— say three feet of wall room ; a tree with seven 
branches will require four feet, but as same space 
ought to be allowed for the spurs on the outside 
branches, say five feet. If the wall be of a 
m.oderate height, eight feet for instance a tree 
with seven branches will produce quite enough 
fruit of one sort. This method ofiers a strong 
contrast to espahers on pear stocks, planted in the 
usual manner, twenty-four feet apart, and trained 
horizontally ; nearly five trees for one will give so 
many additional chances to the pear cultivator: 
the single tree may fail, or its fruit may become 
imperfect, owing to an adverse season ; but out of 
his five trees, he will in every season stand a good 
chance of having some good pears. A few words 
will sufiice for their management: summer pinch- 
ing of the shoots to three leaves all thi'ough the 
summer, as recommended for pyramids (page 7), 
and root-pruning, or biennial removal, these opera- 
tions — like Dr. Sangrado's bleeding and warm 
water — will do all. 

Five or seven-branched vertical cordon trees, not 
only of pears but of cherries on the Mahaleb stock ; 
of plums, and of American apples on the Paradise 
stock (peach trees are too vigorous in their habit) 
may be planted against walls in gardens, if of a 
moderate size, to great advantage. As so much 
variety may be had in a small space, let the 
reader imagine himself to have a brick waU with a 



26 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

Eoutliern aspect, 20 feet long and 8 or 10 feet liigh. 
According to old practice this would afford space for 
one tree, but witli branched vertical cordon training, 
I repeat five trees may be cultivated, and thus give 
five chances to one. 

If this kind of tree on the quince stock cannot be 
procured, those that are trained horizontally, with 
five or seven branches, may be planted against the 
wall or fence destined for them; and their young 
shoots, a, a, and b, b, in Fig. 7, be made to curve 
gently till they are perpendicular ; the young shoots 
of pear trees are very pliable, and will easily bend to 
the required shape. The lower part of each shoot in 
Buch cases must be fastened to the wall with shreds 
and nails, in the usual way, and the remaining part 
brought round to an upright position. If they are 
more than two feet in length, each of these shoots 
must then be shortened to it. These shortened 
branches will, in May, each put forth two or three 
shoots. As soon as they have made five or six leaves 
pinch all but one on each branch to three leaves, 
leaving the topmost one to each shoot, a, a, and b, 6, 
as above, also to the leader. You will thus, if your 
tree be five-branched, have five young leading shoots. 
As soon in June as they have attained to eight inches in 
length, pinch off the end of each, and when they break 
into two or three shoots as before, pinch so as to 
leave the spurs with three leaves, and the leading 
shoot unpinched to each branch. This may be 
repeated, if the soil be rich, two, three, or four times 
in the summer. Your tree will soon reach the top of 
the wall, and every bud in the five branches will be 
perfect, either a blossom-bud, or one in embryo. 
When every branch has reached the top of the wall, 
commence root-pruning in autumn, unless the trees 
have ceased to grow vigorously and are bearing well : 
if so, leave their roots untouched, the directions for root 



PEAR TREES FOR WALLS. 27 

pruning are given in treating of pyramidal trees (p 12). 
These may be followed exactly ; and, if so, the trees 
will be kept in a stationary bearing state. It must 
be recollected that the spurs on the branches wiU 
often put forth shoots even while bearing fruit ; these 
must be pinched into three leaves. 

I may as well hint to the reader, that, if larger 
trees are wished for, so as to give more fruit of each 
sort, trees with nine upright branches may be planted 
seven feet apart, or trees with eleven upright 
branches, nine feet apart. Trees, however, can 
seldom be purchased with shoots so numerous ; young 
trees must therefore be planted, and cut back 
annually for two or three years, till the proper 
number of perpendicular shoots are supplied. It 
may happen that trained trees with five or seven 
branches cannot be procured, perhaps trees with 
only three shoots, two horizontal and one leading 
shoot ; in such cases they must be cut back, leaving 
five buds to each shoot, and the young shoots in June 
trained as required. 

Pyramidal trees cut flat on the side to be placed 
next the wall, and planted against walls or fences, 
will give almost a certain crop. Their shoots must 
be pinched, and trained so as to form a handsome 
semi-pyramidal tree, which, when it has reached 
the top of the wall, must be subjected to biennial 
root-pruning; but this will only be (Fig. 8.) necessary if 
the tree is too vigorous, so as to keep it in a 
stationary fruitful state. Annexed I give a figure 
(Fig. 8) of a young pyramid planted against a 
Bouth-east fence. 

It will, I trust, be seen how economical of space 
are these methods of training pears to walls ; and 
I know of nothing in fruit culture more interesting than 
a wall of upright five -branched cordons or of pyramids 
full of fruit. Let us only consider that a wall 



28 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

100 feet long will accommodate five trees on tho 
pear stock, trained in tlie usual horizontal mode ; 
the same wall wiU. give '' ample room and verge 
enough " to twenty- five trees on the quince stock, 
trained perpendicularly ; if their young shoots (all 
hut the leaders) are pinched in to thi^ee leaves all 
the summer, no root-pruning will be needed. They 
are also invaluable for planting against walls 
between old trees where there are bare spaces, aa 
is so often the case ; for they soon fill up such 
vacancies, and bear abundance of fine fruit. A 




PEAR TREES FOR WALLS. 29 

eelection of varieties for wall trees will not here 
be out of place. 

UPRIGHT TRAINED TREES ON QUINCE STOCKS. 

FOR SOUTH OR SOUTH-WEST "WALLS. 



Crassane* 

Summer Doyenne (1) 
Chaumnntel 
Passe Colmar 



Glou Morceau* 
Beurre Hardy 
Van Mons (Leon le Clerc) 
Gansel's Bergamot (2) 

FOR WEST OR NORTH-WEST WALLS. 

Beurre Diel* 
Beurre d'Amanlis 
Beurre de Ranee 
Beurre Sterckmans* 



Beurre Superfin • 
Marie Louise * 
Louise Bonne of Jersey 
Josephine de Malines* 



FOR EAST OR SOUTH-EAST WALLS. 



Beurre Easter* 
Beurre d'Aremberg* 
Bergamntte d'Esperen 
Winter Nells* 



Doyenne d'Alen9on 
Beurre de Caen 
Consellier de la Cour 
Beurre d'Anjou* 



The above varieties grafted on pear stocks are 
equally adapted for their several aspects. In shallow, 
gravelly, or chalky soils, pears on pear stocks are to 
be preferred for walls. 

It is almost useless to plant dessert pears against 
north or north-east walls, as the fruit, unless in very 
warm seasons, is generally deficient in flavour. The 
only varieties that offer the least chance of success, 
and that only in a warm climate with a dry soil, are 
Marie Louise, Louise Bonne of Jersey, and Beurre 
Superfin. It is far better to plant against such 
aspects baking or stewing pears, such as Catillac, 
Bellissime d'Hiver, and Leon de Clerc de Laval ; the 
Yicar of Winkfield is also a good north wall pear — 
it bears well and stews well. In the north the finer 
sorts of pears must be cidtivated on south walls. 

In recommending pears on quince stocks as pyra- 
midal trees for cold soils and situations, even in the 
far north, I may appear theoretical ; but from my 

(1) This will ripen on walls towards the end of June, quickly followed by 
Citron des Carmes. 

(2) It is not generally known that this fine variety, proverbially a shy 
bearer, becomes when double grafted on the quince stock, one of the most 
abundant bearers. 



80 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

own experience in some very cold and clayey soils in 
tMs neighbourtiood, I feel sanguine as to the result, 
for I have observed in my frequent visits to the pear 
gardens of France that many sorts are often too ripe. 
Now, this is just the tendency we require. In our 
cold and moist climate, most certainly, pears will not 
get too rii>e, more especially in the north of England 
and Scotland. Some years since I received a letter 
from a correspondent Kving in a hilly part of Derby- 
shire, from which I have an extract :— " I have tried 
Beurre Diel, Beurre de Capiaumont, Marie Louise, 
and Williams' Bon Chretien, on pear stocks, all of 
which bear well as standards, but their fruit does 
not come to perfection, always remaining quite 
hard till they decay at the core. I have placed 
the fi'uit in a hot house, but have never succeeded 
in ripening them. Williams' Bon Chretien we 
Can only use for stewing." This seems to show 
that cold hilly situations are not favourable to the 
cultivation of pears as standards. I have recom- 
mended some pears on quince stocks, and have 
heard of a favourable result. 



COEDON PEAHS ON TRELLISES TINDER GLASS. 

Some few years since a very ingenious method 
of growing peaches and nectarines on trellises, 
over which were placed moveable glass hghts, was 
invented by Mr Bellenden Ker. In warm and 
sheltered gardens this mode of culture answers 
very well for peaches, but in cool climates there is 
not day-heat enough stored up, as in houses, to 
act upon the fruit. Cheap orchard-houses are, 
therefore, to be preferred to these cheap trellises 
for the above kinds of fruits, unless the garden be 
small and much sheltered. 

Soon after I had built my treUis for peaches, it 



rPRIQHT TRAINED TREES ON QUINCE STOCKS. 



31 



occurred to me that the system applied to pear culture 
would do weU, and so I built a trellis 60 feet long 




Fio. 9 



and 7 seven feet wide ; on tliis I planted upright five- 
branched cordon pear trees on quince stocks, (see fig. 
7). Fig. 9 is a section of this trellis, and Fig. 10 is a 
front view of a pear tree trained to it in the upright 
method. My trellis was planted ten years ago, and 




Fig. 10 

has now on it twenty fine trees, about twelve years 
old, and in full bearing. They were planted three 
feet apart, as it was my first experiment, and are 
now a little crowded ; four feet apart will be found 
the proper distance. . I have never seen anything 
more interesting in fruit culture than this trellis cover- 
ed with pears, for, owing to its being near the ground, 
the radiation of heat gives the fruit a size and beauty 
rarely seen even on waUs. 

The lights should remain over the trees till the 
beginning of July, and then be removed, sufi'ering 
the fruit to ripen fully exposed to the sun and air. 
It seems that the glass over the fruit in its young 
state serves to develope its growth in a remarkable 



82 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GABDEN. 

manner, for rarely is a spot seen on pears grown on 
these trellises ; they have a clear, beautiful appearance, 
much like those grown in the warmer parts of France. 
I ought to add, that in cool climates, such as the 
North of England and Scotland, the lights may be 
suffered to remain over the trefes till the beginning 
or middle of August. This will hasten the ripening 
of the fruit, but it should be exposed to the air in 
early autumn for some weeks before it is gathered 
(unless the climate be particularly cold and stormy), 
or it may suffer in flavour. Pears ripened under 
glass are apt to suffer in this respect. I have, how- 
ever, very recently received the following communica- 
tion from a very clever fruit-cultivator living in 
Ireland : — 

' ' Let no one persuade you that pears grown in a 
well- ventilated orchard-house are not equal to those 
outside ; I can give strong evidence to the contrary. 
In my house there was a small Louise Bonne on the 
quince stock, in an 11 -inch pot; it bore 23 splendid 
pears, as far superior to the same fruit grown in the 
open air as it was possible to be. They were not, I 
admit, high-coloured, but they attained a richness 
and flavour that I thought Louise Bonne did not 
possess." 

The pear trellis, of which the section and front 
view (Figs. 9 and 10) will give a correct idea, is of 
the most simple description. A row of larch or oak 
posts must be driven into the ground 6 feet apart, 
and another row in front ; on these should be nailed 
plates, 3 inches by 2, and then bars, 3 inches by 1, 
placed flatwise, from front plates to back, 3 feet 
apart; across these, common tiling laths should be 
nailed, six inches asunder. This will form the trellis, 
as seen in Fig. 9. The supports for the lights are 
formed in the same manner, by a row of posts at the 
back, and the same for the front, on which are nailed 



CORDON PEARS ON TRELLISES UNDER GLASS. 33 

plates of the same dimensions as those for the trellis 
a cross-piece should be nailed to front and back plate ; 
at each end, to keep the supports for the lights from 
giving away. The structure with the lights, when 
resting on the back and front plates, has exactly the 
appearance of a large garden frame without back, 
front, or ends. Under the lights the treUis is formed 
with a sharp slope upwards to the back ; for unless 
the front of the trellis is within six inches of the 
ground, it will be difficult to ^end the trees to the 
required position. By this simple contrivance pears 
(and even peaches and nectarines, in warm gardens) 
may be grown in any corner of the garden, with a 
south or south-western exposure — for it is scarcely 
necessary to add that the lights should slope to the 
south or south-west, so as to have all the sun-heat 
possible. 

The most eligible dimensions for a trellis I find 
from experience to be as follows : — 

Glass Lights. 

Eight feet long, three feet wide. 

Height fro u ground at back, three feet six inches. 

Height from ground at front, one foot six inches. 

TreUis. 

Height from ground at back, two feet six inches. 
Height fro ■ ground at fx'ont, six inches. 
Distance from glass lights, one foot. 

The front border should be raised to a level with the 
front of trellis ; this will leave twelve inches between 
the front ends of the lights, and the surface of the 
front border, which will be quite enough for ventila- 
tion ; indeed, the draught in windy weather is inclined 
to be too sharp. I find, therefore, furze, or other 
evergreen branches, placed along the front, between 
the glass and the border, and a mat nailed at the 
back, excellent checks to excessive ventilation in cold 
frosty weather. They may remain there tiil the 

D 



34 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARPEX. 

beginning or end of June ; the latter, if tlie weather he 
coid and stormy. The lights are fastened to the 
plate, back and front, by a hook-and-eye ; they are 
thus easily removed to prune the trees and gather the 
fruit. 

I was induced, as I thought, to improve upon Mr. 
Ker's plan, by having my &st trellis within eight 
inches of the glass, — for I calculated, the nearer the 
glass the better the chance of success in early ripening 
but I suffered for my innovation. My peach trees were 
planted in March, 1848 ; they made during the sum- 
mer, with the lights contantly on, beautifully matured 
shoots, and in March and April, 1850, were gay with 
blossom. The winds were cold, the nights frosty; 
biit owing to the extreme ventilation, which kept every 
bud and shoot dry under the glass, not a blossom was 
injured by the sharj) winds, and the trees were 
covered with fruit. On the fatal 3rd of May, how- 
ever, in 1850, a still hoar frost — the thermometer 
down to 23° — destroyed all my hopes, for, owing to 
the trees being too near the glass, every fruit was 
blackened and destroyed : a single mat would have 
saved them ; but I was not at home, and my j)et trees 
were forgotten. Do not, therefore, have the trellis 
nearer the glass than twelve inches. 

It will be seen that I employ smaller lights, which 
are easily removable for purposes of culture, and a 
smaller trellis than that described by Mr. Ker in the 
seventh edition of this work. I find from experience 
this smaller edition of the Kerian trellis much to be 
recommended for small gardens. 

HORIZONTAL CORDON PEAR TREES ON DWARF WALLS. 

^aving had occasion within these two years to 
erect a large number of four-inch brick walls on 
which to train young peach trees, I have been much 



CORDON PEARS ON TRELLISES UNDER GLASS. 35 

struck with their eligibility for pear trees on quince 
stocks. A very large number of trees may be culti- 
vated in this manner on a small piece of ground. 

My walls have a nine-inch foundation of four 
coiu\ses of brickwork in the ground, and they are 
carried up to foiQ' feet above the surface (it is scarcely 
safe to build them of a greater height), with nine-inch 
piers fifteen feet apart. The coj)ing for them is made 
of boiling coal-tar mixed with hme and sand to the 
consistence of mortar, which is placed on the top of 
the walls thus ^^^ so as to carry o£P the water. This 
is a most cheap and efficacious covering — it can 
scarcely be called a coping, as it does not project over 
the edge of the wall. A coping of Portland cement 
is even better, as it holds the wall together. 

The best descrij)tion of bricks for these light walls 
are the patent j)ei'forated bricks, but common stock 
bricks will do. The very best lime should be used 
(I have found the grey Dorking Kme excellent), but 
any kind of lime made from limestone, will answer 
well ; that made from chalk in this county is not strong 
enough. Their cost, as I learn fi'om my bricklayer, 
is about six shillings the yard in length ; thus a wall 
of the above height, twenty yards long, should cost 
six pounds. In places where bricks are cheaj) they 
may be built for less ; if they are dear and at a dis- 
tance, their carriage will add to the expense. My 
walls are six feet aj)art, and stand endwise, N.E. and 
S.W. ; so that one side of each wall has a S.E. aspect, 
the other a N.W. ; on the former may be grown the 
late-keeping pears, on the latter the earlier sorts, that 
ripen from October till the end of November. We 
thus have one excellent aspect — the S.E. ; and one 
tolerably good — the N.W. ; so that no wall space is 
lost. 

The pear trees for these dwarf walls should be 
grafted on quince stocks, trained horizontally primed 



86 



THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARBEN. 



by summer pincliing as directed for five branclied 
vertical cordons (p. 24). They may be planted five 
feet apart at first, and when their branches meet they 
should be interlaced, as in Fig. 11, and if necessary 
i.e., if the shoots he long enough— they may be 
trained over the stems, so that the wall is completely 
furnished with bearing branches. At the end of 
five or six years every alternate tree may be removed 
leaving the permanent trees ten feet apart. I advise 
planting thus thickly, because I know from experience 
that the temporary trees will fill the walls, will bear 
a good quantity of fruit, and look more satisfactory 
than if they are planted thinly. When removed 




Fig. 11 

they may be planted out for espaliers, or fresh walls 
built for them. I have some trees that have been 
planted six years ; but I find that, owing to the soil 
not being rich, they have not grown rapidly, and need 
not yet be removed, as their branches only just cover 
all the fence to which they are trained. 

If, owing to the soil being rich, the trees are. 
inclined to grow vigorously and not bear, they 
should be hfted biennially, or root-pruned ; but pears 
on q[uince stocks wiU be sure to bear abundantly. 



CORDON PEAR TREES ON DWARF WALLS. 37 

These dwarf walls, wlien covered with well 
trained trees, have a neat and charming effect, 
and the trees may be so easily protected by 
sticking branches of evergreens in the ground and 
letting them rest against the wall, or by wooden 
shutters, placed on the ground at an angle so as 
to rest against the wall ; but I intend to be more 
luxurious, and to have cheap glass lights, in lieu 
of shutters, placed against the walls, and suffered 
to remain, so as to cover the trees till the fruit is 
fully formed, or till the first week in June, when 
all fear of damage from frost is over. 

Where two or more walls are built, or a square 
piece of ground devoted to them, a cross wall or 
walls should be built at the north-east end, to 
prevent the sharp current of wind from the north- 
east, which would blow up the intervals between 
the walls with great violence. It is surprising what 
a quantity of fruit may be grown on a small space of 
ground with the aid of these walls ! Peaches, nectar- 
ines, and apricots may be grown on the S.E. aspect, 
but the trees must be kept in check by biennial 
removal. I have at this moment more than two 
thousand yards in length of them, and I intend to add 
to them annually, so convinced am I of their economy 
and utility. They seem to me most particularly suited 
to suburban, or what are commonly called cockney 
gardens. How pleasant to be able to have a brick 
wall twenty yards long for six pounds, or ten yards 
long for three pounds ! and how delightful to be able 
to grow one's own '* waU fruit ! " On a wall ten yards 
long five peach and nectarine trees may be trained, 
and many dozens of fruit produced annually. These 
dwarf walls for the cultivation of peaches, nectarines, 
and apricots must, however, differ from those for pear 
trees, and be built so as to give a south or south-west 
aspect for the front, a north or north-east for the back. 



88 THE MINIATURE FKUIT GARDEN. 

The latter may be planted with. Morello cherries. To 
carry out the cultivation of the above-mentioned trees 
on dwarf walls, it is absolutely necessary to take 
them up biennially in November, and replant them 
in the same place. ^ They will not require any 
compost to their roots, for peach, nectarine, and 
apricot trees are generally by far too vigorous in 
their growth. In some of the London suburban 
gardens the soil is so rich, that annual removal, 
particularly with apricots, may be found to be 
quite necessary. In country gardens where the 
soil is poor, a dressing of manure on the surface 
over the roots two inches deep will be of service. 
The peach trees on my experimental wall are re- 
moved biennially. The soil is not rich, yet they 
are almost too vigorous ; they bear fine fi:uit and 
give good crops. 

A matter of great consequence in peach tree 
culture on walls is to keep the surface of the soil 
solid ; if, therefore, the trees grow too vigorously, so 
as to require removal, say in October, the soil, after 
the tree is planted, should, after becoming dry, 
be rammed with a wooden hammer, so as to be as 
solid as a common garden path. In spring this 
hard surface should be covered with a slight deposit 
of thoroughly decayed manure, which will be all 
the culture required, 

ESPAIilEE PEAES ON QDTNCE STOCKS. 

Pears on the quince may be cultivated as 
horizontal espaliers or cordons by the sides of 
walks, or trained to lofty walls with much ad- 
vantage, as less sj)ace is required. Horizontal 

(1) It is a prudent practice in all cases of biennial remoral to remove 
half the number of trees in alternate years, for in di-y seasons those 
recently lemoved may be too much checked in their growth to bear a 
■crop of fruit the first season after removal. 



PEACH TREES ON DWARF WALLS. 39 

ospaliers, or wall trees, on tlie pear 'stock, trained 
to walls of the usual heigh-t i.e., from ten to 
twelve feet require to be planted twenty feet 
apart, wliile those on the quince may be planted 
only ten feet apart ; this in a small garden will 
allow of much greater variety of sorts to supply 
the table at different seasons. "With these the 
same high culture, if perfection be wished for, 
must be followed ; the trees carefully planted, so 
that the junction of the graft with the stock is 
even with the surface of the mould formed as 
directed for pp'amids. The pruning of wall pear 
trees has always been a subject of controversy 
with gardeners, as they are inclined to grow too 
vigorously. If it be thought desirable to have 
trees of large growth, so as to cover a high wall, 
and yet be highly fertile, it is much better to root- 
prune than to prune the branches. With such 
trees it need not be done so severely : biennial 
root-pruning will be quite sufficient, commencing at 
eighteen inches from the wall, after the tree has 
had two seasons' growth, cutting off the ends of 
all the roots at that distance from the wall, and in- 
creasing it by six inches at every biennial pruning, 
till a distance of six feet fron the wall is reached. 
When this is the case the roots must be confined 
to the border of that width by digging a trench 
biennially, and cutting off all the ends of the 
roots at that distance from the wall. 

I may, perhaps, make this more plain by saying 
that a tree planted in November, 1860, should 
have its roots shortened to eighteen inches in 
November, 1862; to twenty-four inches in 1864; 
to thirty inches in 1866; to three feet in 1868; 
and so on, leaving six inches biennially till, say, 
a distance of six feet from the wall is reached 
in 1880. This border, six feet wide, will then be 



40 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

full of fibrous roots. ^ It should never be dug or 
cropped, but annually have a surface dressing of 
manure about two inches in thickness ; and, as 
I have before said, have a trench dug biennially 
eighteen inches deep, six feet from the wall, and 
the end of every protruding root cut o£P. If this 
method be followed, summer pinching to three 
leaves the first time, and to one leaf afterwards, of 
the spurs on all the leading branches, may be 
practised, and scarcely any winter pruning will be 
required. 

In forming borders for wall pear trees on quince 
stocks biennially root-pruned, the soil should be 
well stirred with the fork to a depth of eighteen 
inches, and if it be poor a good dressing of rotten 
manure or leaf mould should be mixed with it. 
Pears on quince stocks are much better adapted 
for this mode of culture than those on pear stocks. 
If the latter be planted, the border, six feet wide, 
should have a thick layer of concrete at bottom, 
to prevent the roots striking downwards; or it 
would be good practice to place, eighteen inches 
deep, under each tree, a flat piece of stone, three 
feet in diameter — this would force the roots to 
take a horizontal direction, and facilitate the 
operation of root-pruning. 

For fine specimens of wall pear trees grafted on 
the quince, I may refer to those on the west wall 
of the Boyal Horticultm^al Society's Gardens at 
Chiswick. These are now about forty years old, 
and are pictures of health and fertility, thus at 
once settling the question respecting the early 
decay of pear trees grafted on the quince; for it 
has been often, very often urged as an objection 

(I) If the -wall to -which the trees are trained be twelve feet and upwards 
in height, the border should be eight and even ten feet in width. Wide 
and shallow fruit tree borders are much to be preferred to those that ar0 
deep and nan-ow. 



ESPALIER PEARS ON QUINCE STOCKS. 41 

to the use of the quince stock, that pears grafted 
on it are, although prolific, but very short-lived. 
I have seen trees in France more than fifty years 
old, and those above referred to may be adduced 
to confute this error. 

PEAR TREES TRAINED AS SINGLE VERTICAL CORDONS. 

The French gardeners have a curious yet interesting 
mode of training pears on the quince stock, about 
which a book was published in France a few years 
since. The system, I have recently learnt from some 
French cultivators, is now largely practiced in the 
south of France with the peach apricot. It is called 
training " en fuseau," or distaff training ; and is the 
most simple of all modes. A young tree, one year 
old from the bud, is planted, and every side slioot, as 
soon as it has made four or five leaves, has its top 
pinched off, leaving three full-sized ones. This is the 
first pinching early in June. These pinched shoots 
all put forth young shoots, which must be pinched to 
one leaf; and so on with all the young shoots, during 
the summer, and the like practice every season. 
This will of course lead to spurs of some length 
being produced ; these spurs should in the second 
or third year be reduced to haK their length, so as to 
keep the fruit-buds close to the stem. This reducing 
of the spurs should be done in winter, and is required 
in all cordon training. When the leading shoot has 
grown twelve inches its top should be pinched off, 
and as soon as two or three break out at this point, 
all should be pinched in but one for the leader. A 
very compact distaff-like tree is thus formed. 

For small gardens, where the cultivator wishes 
for a large collection of pears in a small place, 
this (which is, in fact, the cordon system applied 
to single stemmed trees) is to be recommended. 

Fig. 18 is a single cordon apple tree, from a 



42 



THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 



specimen growing liere (single cordon pear trees 
require tlie same culture), and will, X)erliaps, give 
tlie reader a correct idea of the adaptability of 
these compact trees for small gardens; they may 
be planted two feet apart. 

DIAGONAI. SINGLE COEDONS. 

Fig. 12, the diagonal single cordon, is a pear tree 




PEAR TREES AS SINGLE VERTICAL CORDONS. 43 

grafted on the quince,, planted and trained against 
a wall or fence at an angle of 45, the trees 
eighteen to twenty inches apart. They should 
be pinched in, and managed exactly as recom- 
mended for the vertical cordons. The gentle 
slope given to them seems to promote fruitful- 
ness. Diagonal cordons of pears, plums, cherries, 
apples, and apricots may be cultivated with 
success when trained against walls with south-west 
and all other aspects, -except north or north-east. 

There is perhaps no wall-fruit tree so likely to be 
largely benefited by single diagonal training as the 
apricot. Every gardener knows the wretched dis- 
appointment often felt in summer by large and appar- 
ently healthy branches of their apricot trees dying off 
suddenly, and leaving them without any remedy — for 
the gap made cannot be filled, owing to the rigidity 
of the remaining branches. There is, therefore, no 
remedy for this failure of apricot trees when trained 
to walls in the usual manner, but there is a sure 
method of avoiding it — simple enough : it is by plan- 
ting single diagonal cordon trees, which may be 
maiden trees with a single stem, or trees in a bearing 
state froto. the nursery. In planting, if the tree is 
slender, it is usual to keep the stem of the stock 
as neariv upright as possible ; but as the graft is often 
too stiff to bend readily, the tree may be planted 
slopingly. 

Single diagonal apricot trees require a south or 
south-west aspect, and should be planted eighteen to 
twenty inches apart, and every shoot pinched in during 
the summer, as directed for cordon pear trees (p. 41), 
and the same directions as to reducing and thinning 
out the fruit spurs in winter is necessary. The leading 
shoot need not, as a general rule, be shortened till it 
reaches the top of the wall, as the shoot of an apricot 
tree is generally so robust and full of buds. A single 



44 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

diagonal apricot tree, sloped to an angle of 45 or so, 
will, when it reaches the top of a wall 1 feet in height, 
be a cordon 15 feet in length. A wall 20 feet long 
will thus give space enough for ten or twelve trees 
which in the course of two or three years will bear 
enormous quantities of fruit. One most important 
advantage, I repeat, is held out by this mode of cul- 
ture : no unseemly gaps need be seen owing to the 
death of branches, as in the present mode, for when- 
ever a tree dies — a very uncommon event — it may be 
at once replaced. The expense of ten trees instead 
of one may be urged by the planter, costing 15s. 
instead of 7s. 6d. for one well-trained tree. I 
have only to remark, that when the system is 
fully carried out the demand will be met by a much 
cheaper supply, and it must be recollected that 
it gives a tenfold advantage over the old method 
of training. 

Above all, it does away with the tiresome 
annual necessity of 'laying in" shoots, and 
pruning and nailing in winter.. The single diago- 
nal tree merely requires three or four stout shreds, 
or, what would be a decided improvement, the 
same number of bands of india-rubber, to fasten 
the stem to the wall. 

Peaches and nectarines trained as diagonal cor- 
dons against walls with a S. or S.W. aspect are 
worthy of a trial but only in the warmer parts of 
England : here they are planted against the back 
wall of a lean-to house with an unshaded roof, 
and promise well. 

The system of single diagonal training is so 
simple all the pruning is pinching that one feels 
assured of its being widely spread among amateur 
gardeners, who seem likely to lead the sound 
gardening taste of England. It must, however, be 
recollected that although such trees trained against 



DIAGONAL SINGLE CORDONS. 45 

a wire fence are charming, they require pro- 
tection from spring frosts, our great enemy. 

PEAR TEEE HEDGE. 

A few years since, when visiting a friend at 
Fontenay aux Boses, near Paris, I was much struck 
with a hedge formed of pear trees on the quince stock. 
He smiled when he told me his method of cultivation 
and pruning, the latter being simply clipping hia 
hedge in July, with the garden shears, ^ and thinning 
out the spurs in winter, when they become crowded. 
A few days since (July 1862), my friend paid me a 
visit, and I inquired, with some interest, about his 
pear tree hedge. He assured me that it was perfectly 
healthy, and generally gave him large crops of fruit 
The sorts proper to form a hedge are Louise Bonne 
of Jersey, Beurre d'Amanlis, Beurre Hardy, Conseiller 
de la Cour, Beurre d'Aremberg, Beurre Superfin, 
Dehces d'Jodoigne, Doyeene du Cornice, Duchesse 
d'Angouleme, and Yicar of Winkfield. These 
are all free growers on the quince stock, and if 
planted in a favourable soil and climate would soon 
form a fruitful hedge. They should be planted 
about thirty inches apart, and in masses, i.e. 
planting, say ten of each sort together. A hedge 
may be formed, varying more in its aspect by planting 
one or two trees of each sort in succession, — this is a 
mere matter of taste. A pear tree hedge when in 
full bloom must have an agreeable look, and when 
full of fruit be very profitable. 

PYRAMIDS ON THE PEAR STOCKS. 

There are some dry, warm, shallow soils, more 
particularly those resting on chalk or gravel, which 
are unfavourable to the pear on the quince stock it 
is difficult to make them flourish, unless great car: is 
taken in mulching the surface, and giving them 

(1) An Ensrlish cultivator would employ pruning scissors to shorten tke 
shoots, and thus make his hedge look as if cai'ed tor. 



46 THE MINIATUEE FRUIT GARDEN. 

abundance of water and liquid manure in summer. 
In such, soils pyramids on tlie pear stock may be 
cultivated witb but little trouble. 

To tbose who wish to train them as they should 
grow, one-year-old grafted plants may be selected, 
which may be managed as directed for young 
pyramids on the quince stock. If trees of mature 
growth are planted, they will require the treatment 
recommended for pyramids on the quince stock, as re- 
gards summer pinching. There is no occasion, however 
to make a mound up to the junction of the graft with 
the stock, as the pear does not readily emit roots. 
Annual root-pruning is almost indispensable to pyra- 
mids on pear stocks in small gardens, and it will much 
facilitate this operation if each tree be planted on a 
small mound, the roots are then so easily brought to 
the surface. This annual operation, which should 
be done in November, may be dispensed with in 
soils not rich, if the trees be lifted biennially in that 
month and replanted, merely pruning off the ends 
of any long roots. Annual surface manuring, as 
recommended for pyramids on the quince, is also 
necessary, if the trees be root-pruned or biennially 
removed. 

Trees of the usual size and quality may be planted, 
and suffered to remain two years undisturbed, unless 
the soil be rich and they make vigorous shoots (say 
eighteen inches in length) the first season after plan- 
ting, in which place operations may then commence 
the first season. Thus, supposing a tree to be planted 
in November or December, itmay remain untouched 
two years from that period ; and then as early in autumn 
as possible a circumferential trench, twelve inches 
deep, should be dug, and every root cut with the knife 
and brought near to the surface, and the spade intro- 
duced under the trees, so as completely to intercept 
every perpendicular root. 



PYRAMIDAL PEAR TREES. 47 

Tlie treddle spade used in this part of Hertfordshire 
is a very eligible instrument for this purpose, as the 
edge is steeled and very sharp. The following year, 
the third from planting, a trench may be again opened, 
at fifteen inches from the stem, so as not to injure the 
fibrous roots of the proceeding summer's growth, and 
the knife and spade again used to cut all the spreading 
and perpendicular roots that are getting out of bounds. 
The fourth year the same operation may be repeated 
at eighteen inches from the stem ; and in all subse- 
quent root-x3runing this distance from the stem must 
be kept. This will leave enough undisturbed earth 
round each tree to sustain as much fruit as ought to 
grow, for the object is to obtain a small prolific tree. 

I find that in the course of years a perfect mass of 
fibrous roots is formed, which only requires the annual 
or biennial operation (the former if the tree be very 
vigorous) of a trench being dug, and the ball of earth 
heaved down to ascertain whether any large feeders 
are making their escape from it, and to cut them off. 
But it must be borne in mind that this circular mass 
of soil will in a few years be exhausted ; to remedy 
which, I have had left round each tree, eighteen inches 
from the stem, a slight depression of the soil, or, in 
other words, the trench has not been quite filled 
in. This circular furrow I have had filled, in Decem- 
ber and January, with fresh liquid night soil, cover- 
ing it with a coat of burnt earth two inches thick, 
which has had a most excellent effect. Any other 
liquid manure would undoubtedly have been equally 
efficacious, but my soil was poor, and I thought it 
required strong manure. As it did not come in con- 
tact with the roots, no injury resulted from using such 
a powerfid raw manure. 

There is no absolute necessity for liquid manur- 
ing in the winter, as common dung may be laid round 
each tree in autumn, and suffered to be washed in by 



48 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

the rains in winter, and drawn in by the worms. In 
mentioning liquid manui-e, I give the result of my 
own practice. The great end to attain seems (to use 
an agricultural phrase) to be able '' to feed at home ;" 
that is, to give the mass of spongioles enough nutri- 
ment in a small space. A tree will then make shoots 
from eight to ten inches long in one season (for such 
ought to be the maximum of growth), and at the same 
time be able to produce abundance of blossom-buds 
and fruit. On trees of many varieties the former wiU 
be in too great abundance : removing a portion in 
early spring, cutting them out with a sharp knife, so 
as to leave each fruit-spur about three inches apart, 
is excellent culture. 

I have not yet mentioned the possibility of 
root-pruning fruit trees of twenty or thirty years' 
growth with advantage. Irregular amputation of 
the roots of too vigorous fruit trees is, I am aware, 
an old practice ; but the regular, and annual or 
biennial pruning of them, so as to keep a tree full 
of youth and vigour in a stationary and prolific 
state, has not, that I am aware of, been recom- 
mended by any known author, although it may 
have been practised. In urging its applicability 
to trees of twenty or thirty years' growth, I must 
recommend caution : the circular trench should 
not be nearer the stem of a standard tree than 
three feet, or if it be a wall tree, four feet, and 
only two-thirds of the roots should be pruned the 
first season, leaving one-third to support the tree, 
80 that it cannot be blown on one side by the 
wind, and these, of course, must be left where 
they will best give this support. The following 
season half the remaining roots may be cut, or, if the 
tree be inclined to vigour, all of them ; but if it gives 
symptoms of being checked too much, they may, on 
the contrary, remain undisturbed for one, or even two 



PYEAMIDS ON THE PEAR STOCKS. 49 

seasons. If, as is often tlie ease in pear trees, the 
roots are nearly all perpendicular, the tree must be 
supported with stakes for one or two years after 
complete root-pruning. 

The following extract from a letter recently received 
from C. Boach Smith, Esq., the archaeologist, is in- 
teresting, as showing the prompt effects of root- 
pruning of trees: — "I have only been a horticulturist 
for three years ; I took to two very beautiful old pear 
trees, which must have cost no end of naihng, cutting, 
and staking. On inquiry, I found that one (a Summer 
Bon Chretien) had never produced more than one 
pear annually ; the other, upon a north wall had never 
given a single pear. I could get no aid from any one 
what to do with those trees, and no book then ac- 
cessible helped me. I reflected on the natural habit 
of the pear tree, and coming to the conclusion that 
the cause of barrenness was exuberance of roots, I 
resolved to cut them. Before the leaves had fallen, 
a friend send me 'The retired Gardener,' an old 
book, translated from the French. In it I found an 
account of some experiments made in England, which 
fortified me in the resolution I had taken. The first 
year the Summer Bon Chretien^ produced nine fruit. 
I pruned the roots more closely, and this year (1859), 
in spite of the ungenial spring, I saved fifty-nine 
pears. The other tree yielded thirty-six, but of so 
vile a quality that I have re-grafted the tree. A large 
plum treated in the same way, produced the season 
after being root-pruned, 2000 fruit." 

It will not, perhaps, be out of place here to enu- 
merate a few of the advantages of systematic root- 
pruning and removing or lifting of pear, apple, and 
plum trees, and of growing them as pyramidal trees 
and bushes. 

(1) Ttis is one of our oldest varieties, and remarkable for being a very shy 
bearer. 



50 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

1st. Their eligibility for small gardens, even the 
smallest. 

2ndly. The facihty of thinning the blossom-buds, 
and in some varieties, such as Gransel's Bergamot, 
and other shy-bearing sorts, of setting the blossoms, 
and of thinning and gathering the fruit. 

Srdly. Their making the gardener independant 
of the natural soil of his garden, as a few barrowfuls 
of rich mould and annual manure on the surface 
will support a tree for many, very many years, thus 
placing bad soils nearly on a level with those the 
most favourable. 

4thly. The capability of removing trees of fifteen 
or twenty years' growth with as much facility as fur- 
niture. To tenants, this will, indeed, be a boon, for 
perhaps one of the greatest annoyances a tenant is 
subject to is that of being obliged to leave behind him 
trees that he has nurtured with the utmost care. 

^y g^^y hairs tell me that I am not a young 
gardener, and yet I feel that in judicious root-pruning 
and annual manuring on the surface, so as to keep 
our fruit trees full of short well-ripened fruitful 
shoots, we are all inexperienced. At this moment I 
am reminded of a wall in a neighbouring garden, 
covered with peach and nectarine trees in the finest 
possible health. 

Eor more than twenty years a healthy peach tree 
was never seen in this garden, as the subsoil is a cold 
white clay, full of chalk-stones. This happy change 
has been brought about by biennially pruning the 
roots of the trees early in autumn, as soon as the fruit 
is gathered ; in some cases lifting the trees and 
supplying their roots with a dressing of leaf-mould, 
sand, and rotten manure, equal parts. Powdered 
charcoal, or the ashes of burnt turf and rotten 
manure, also make an excellent root-dressing for cold 
heavy soils ; but if the soil be dry and poor, and 



PLANTING AND AFTER MANAGEMENT. 51 

unfavourable to the peacL. and nectarine, loam and 
rotten manure is the best dressing for the roots, and 
also for the surface. 

PLANTING AND AFTER MANAGEMENT. 

PjTamidal pear trees of from three to five years old 
on the quince stock, root-pruned, and full of blossom- 
buds, may now be purchased. Trees of this descrip- 
tion should, if possible, be planted before Christmas ; 
but if the soil be very tenacious, the holes may be 
opened in the autumn, and the trees planted in 
February; the soil will be mellowed and benefited by 
the frosts of winter.^ 

Pear trees grafted on the quince stock ofi'er a 
curious anomaly, for if they are removed quite late 
in spring — say towards the end of March, when their 
blossom-buds are just on the point of bursting — they 
will bear a fine and often an abundant crop of fruit. 
This is sometimes owing to the blossoms being 
retarded, and thus escaping the spring frosts ; but it 
has so often occurred here when no frosts have visited 
us that I notice it — in fact, no trees bear late removal 
so well as pears on quince stocks. 

In planting pear trees on the quince stock, it is 
quite necessary that the stock should be covered up to 
its junction with the graft. This joining of the graft 
to the stock is generally very evident, even to the 
most ignorant in gardening matters ; it usually 
assumes the form as given in Fig. 13, a. 

If the soil be not excessively wet, the tree may be 
placed in a hole, say three feet in diameter and 

(1 ) The roots of pear trees on the quince stock, and, indeed, of all root- 
pruned trees are very fibrous. In planting-, it is good practice to give > ach 
tree two shovelfuls of fine earth or mould rather dry — to place it on the 
roots and shake the tree, so that the mould is mixed with the mass of 
fibrous roots. Before the soil is all filled in, three or four gallons of water 
should be poured in. so as io wash the earth into every crevice. The n)0t3 
Bliould not be crammed into a small hole. A tree, with its roots 18 inches in 
diameter, will require a hole 24 feet in diameter, and 60 on in proportion. 



82 THE MINIATtTKE FKUIT GARDETf. 

eigliteen inclies deep, in the usual way, so that the 



I 




Fig. 13 

upper roots are slightly above the level of the surface, 
as the tree will always settle clown two or three inches 
the first season after planting. Some of the hght 
compost recommended in page 18 should be filled in, 
and the tree weU shaken, so that it is thoroughly 
mingled with its roots. The compost must then be 
trodden down ; and so far the planting is finished. 
The earth should then be placed round the stem, and 
formed into a mound, which should cover the stock 
up to, hut not above, the junction of the graft with the 
stock, in order to encourage it to emit roots into the 
surface soil, and to keep it (the stock) from becoming 
hard and ' ' barkbound. ' ' 

To make this emission of roots more certain, the 
stem may be tongued, as usual in layering — i.e., the 
bark must be cut through upwards from the root, and 
a slip about one inch in length raised (see ^ig. 13, b, 
bf which are the raised pieces of bark) j and these 



PLANTING AND AFTER MANAGEMENT. 53 

raised peices of bark must be kept open by inserting 
a piece of broken flower-pot or slate. Several of 
these tongues may be made, and by the end of the 
first year after planting every incision will have 
emitted roots ; the stock, owing to its being kept 
constantly moist, will swell and keep pace with the 
graft, and the tree will flourish and remain healthy. 
As the mound will subside by the heavy rains of 
winter, presuming that the trees have been planted in 
autumn, fresh compost of the same nature must be 
added in spring, and every succeeding autumn. A 
quarter of a peck of soot, strewed on the surface in a 
circle three feet in diameter round each tree in March, 
is an excellent stimulant. The great object in the 
culture of the pear on the quince stock is to encourage 
the growth of its very fibrous roots at the surface, so 
that they may feel the full influence of the sun and 
air. The slight mounds recommended may be made 
ornamental if required, by placing pieces of rock or 
flint on them, which will also prevent the birds scratch- 
ing at them for worms ; but the stones selected must not 
be very large and heavy — they should be about the 
size and weight of a brick. In light friable soils, the 
mounds may be from three to four inches above the 
surface of the surrounding soil ; in heavy retentive 
wet soils, from six to eight inches will not be found 
too high. 

In soils of a light dry nature the pear on the 
quince requires careful culture, I therefore re- 
commend the surface round the tree to be covered 
during June, July and August, with short litter, ^* or 
manure, and to give the trees once a week, in 
dry weather, a drenching with guano water (about 



• A clerical amateur has informed me that this " mutching " or placing 
half-rotten manure one to two inches deep on the surface in a circle from 
two to three feet in diameter and one and a-half inches deep, according to 
the size of the tree, will prevent pears working 



54 THE MINIATXTRE FRUIT GARDEW. 

one pound to ten gallons), wliicli mnst be well stirred 
before it is used. Each, tree should have ten gallons 
poured gradually into the soil ; by this method the 
finest fruit may be produced ; and as it is very 
probable that, ere many years elapse, we shall have 
exhibitions of pears, this will be the mode to procure 
fine specimens to show for prizes. Our oldest 
gardening authors have said, that ' ' pears engrafted 
on the quince stock give the fairest fruit ; " and they 
are correct. It has been asserted that the fruit is 
liable to be gritty and deficient in flavour. I can 
only say, that from my trees, growing on a cold 
clayey soil, I have tasted fruit of Marie Louise, Louise 
Bonne of Jersey, and others, all that could be wished 
for in size and flavour. 

In the course of my experience, and since the 
above recommendation to plant on mounds was 
written, I have found it good practice in very dry 
soils to plant pear trees on the quince stock with tbe 
junction of the graft just level with the surface, so as 
not to require mounds round their stems. The firs t 
season they should have some manure on the surface, 
laid in a circle round the stem ; and the second year 
a shallow basin, two feet in diameter and four inches 
deep, should be dug round the stem, and filled with, 
some manure about half-rotten. This basin thus 
filled will keep moist even in the most dry and 
hot weather, and will become full of fibrous roots. 
This is also an excellent method of renovating 
pear trees that have exhausted themselves by bear- 
ing too abundantly, or that appear unhealthy by 
their leaves turning yellow. In such cases, when 
the trees are of advanced growth, a basin of the 
same depth, but three or more feet in diamater, 
should be formed and filled with manure : in all 
cases for this purpose this should be but slightly 
decomposed. 



BUSH PEAR TREES FOR A MARKET GARDEN. 55 



BUSH PEAR TREES EOR A MARKET GARDEN. 

There are many sunny favourable spots wLicli the 
amateur gardener may turn to profit accompanied by 
pleasure, simply by planting bush pear trees grafted 
on the quince stock. The plantation should be 
a sort of nursery, and for this purpose they should be 
planted in rows, three feet row from row, and three 
apart in the rows ; a piece of ground planted after 
this method will contain 4840 trees per imperial acre. 

By pinching every shoot to three leaves all the 
summer, the trees form compact fruitful bushes ; 
this constant summer pinching has a remarkable effect 
in moderating the vigour of fruit trees. They 
will commence to bear the second year after planting, 
and if each tree give but ten or twelve fruit, one acre 
will produce a large quantity. They may be suffered 
to remain at the above distance unroot-pruned, and 
unremoved for seven, eight, or ten years ; and then 
as they will nearly or quite touch each other, every 
alternate tree should be removed, and another plant- 
ation formed. The removal of the trees should be 
done carefully, so that those left will stand four feet 
and a-half apart and in quincunx order, thus, * . \ 
This may be done as follows : Presuming the first 
row to consist of ten trees, begin at the first row by 
removing the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th trees ; in the 
second row, remove the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th ; in 
the 3rd row, again 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th, trees and 
so on with all, and through all the rows however long ; 
at this distance they may remain for fourteen, 
eighteen, or twenty years. At the end of one of these 
periods every alternate row of trees must be removed, 
leaving the permanent trees six feet apart : the 
periods of removal must, to certain extent, depend 
upon the nature of the soil; if this be of high fertility 
the removal of the trees must be commenced at the 



56 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

earlier period. It may sound strangely to the 
routine gardener to advise the removal of fruit trees 
when twenty years old ; but I say this advisedly, for 
the trees in a plantation of Louise Bonne pears on 
the quince stock, planted here twenty years since in 
rows five feet apart, were recently removed and have 
succeeded well, commencing to bear fine crops the 
second season after being transplanted. When pyra- 
midal trees from ten to twenty years old are removed, 
their branches should all be shortened to at least 
one-half their length. Although these trees were 
originally planted only five feet apart in the rows, 
and have grown well, they did not — and those left un- 
removed do not — touch each other ; this is, of course, 
owing to their young shoots having been pinched in 
every summer for so many seasons. 

From closely observing these trees for many years, 
and even to-day (July 20th, 1864), upon measuring 
the shoots of the unremoved trees, and finding they 
do not meet by at least fifteen inches, I have based 
the idea conveyed by the heading of these paragraphs 
p. 58. It may be asked, why not plant pyramids, 
which are handsome and jDroductive ? Experience 
furnishes me with a reply : When my 2000 pyramids 
of Louise Bonne pears commenced to bear their large 
crops of fruit, I found so many displaced by the wind 
that supporting them with stakes became expensive 
and troublesome, I therefore recommend all those 
who wish to mke their pear-tree plantations profitable 
as well as j)leasurable to plant bush trees. ^ In 
sheltered gardens the amateur may without hesitation 
continue to plant pjTamids, for no description of fruit 
tree can be more interesting, but when profit is to be 
attached to cultivation, and fruit trees cultivated by 
the acre, the bush form should be adhered to. The 

(1) These may be with advantage a sort of hybrid bush tree, partaking a 
little of the pyramid, and allowed to grow to a height of four or five feet. 



GATHERING THE FRUIT. 57 

varieties best adapted to this mode of culture are, 
first and best, Louise Bonne of Jersey, Fondante 
d'Automne, Beurre d'Aremberg, Beurre Superfin, 
Williams' Bon Chretien, Beurre Bachelier, Winter 
Nelis, and Bergamotte d'Esperon. If more robust 
growing sorts are planted, suck as Beurre Diel, 
Beurre d'Amanlis, Beurre Hardy, and some others, 
the plantation should be commenced with rows four 
feet apart, and the trees four feet apart in the rows. 
The ground occupied by the i^lantation should be 
stirred with the Parkes' steel fork every season, in 
February or March, but not deeper than from three 
to four inches, and the weeds carefully turned down. 
In the summer the weeds must be kept under by 
hoeing, which will keep the surface loose and promote 
the health of the trees ; without this stirring with the 
fork in early spring, the soil would become too 
hard during the summer for hoeing with facility. 

I ought here to mention, that amateur planters 
who think of planting bush pear trees in less quan- 
tities than I have alluded, i.e. by the dozen, or score, 
or hundred, may plant them four feet apart row 
from row and the same distance apart in the rows. 

GATHERING THE EETJIT. 

The fruit of pears, more particularly those on quince 
stocks, should not be suffered to ripen on the tree ; 
the summer and autumn varieties should be gathered 
before they are quite ripe, and left to ripen in the 
fruit room.^ The late pears should be gathered before 
the leaves take their autumnal tints ; if suffered to 
remain too long on the trees they frequently never 
ripen, but continue hard till they rot. In most sea- 
sons, from the begining to the end of October is a 

(1) Pears that ripen in September and October should not be gathered 
all at one time, but at intervals of a week or so, making, say, three gather- 
ings ; their season is thus much prolonged. 



05 THE MINIATTJIIE FRUIT GARDEN. 

good time ; but mucli depends on soil and climate. 
The following passage from tliat very excellent work, 
Downing' s " Fruit Trees of America," is appropriate 
to this subject : 

" The pear is a peculiar fruit in one respect, which 
should always be kept in mind viz., that most 
varieties are much finer in flavour if picked from the 
tree, and ripened in the house, than if allowed to 
become fully matured on the tree. There are a few 
exceptions to this rule, but they are very few. And, 
on the other hand, we know a great many varieties 
which are only second or third-rate when ripened on 
the tree, but possess the highest and richest flavour 
if gathered at the proper time, and allowed to mature 
in the house. This proper season is easily known, 
first by the ripening of a few full-grown but worm- 
eaten specimens, which fall soonest from the tree ; 
and secondly by the change of colour, and the 
readiness of the stalk to part from its branch on 
gently raising the fruit. The fruit should then be 
gathered or so much of the crop as apj^ears 
sufficiently matured and spread out on shelves in 
the fruit ix)om, or upon the floor of the garret. Here 
it will gradually assume its full colour and become 
deliciously melting and luscious. Many sorts which 
if suffered to ripen in the sun and open air are rather 
dry, when ripened within doors are most abundantly 
melting and juicy. They will also last for a considera- 
bly longer period, if ripened in this way, maturing 
gradually as wanted for use, and being thus beyond 
the risk of loss or injury by violent storms or high 
winds. 

'' Winter dessert pears should be allowed to hang 
on the tree as long as possible, till the nights become 
frosty.^ They should then be wrapped separately in 

(1) I feel compelled to differ from Mr. D. in this respect ; for in the 
autumn of 1855, 1 suffered many pears to hang on the trees till the end of 



HOW TO STORE WINTER PEARS IN SMALL aTTANTITIES, 59 

paper, packed in Icegs, barrels, or small hoxes, and 
placed in a cool, dry room, free from frost. Some 
varieties, as the Beurre d'Aremberg, will ripen finely 
with no other care than placing them in barrels in the 
cellar, like apples. But most kind of the finer winter 
dessert pears should be brought into a warm apart- 
ment for a couple of weeks before their usual season 
of maturity. They should be kept covered, to pre- 
vent shrivelling. Many sorts that are comparatively 
tough if ripened in a cold apartment, become very 
melting, buttery, and juicy, when allowed to mature 
in a room kept at the temperature of 60 or 70 deg." 

The following is from Mr. Grlass's " Gardening 
Book," as given in the Gardener's Chronicle : — 

HOW TO STOEE WINTER PEARS IN SMALL QTJANTITIES. 

*'Gret some unglazed jars, — garden pots will do; 
make them perfectly clean, if they have ever been 
used. The best way is to half bui-n or bake them 
over again. 

' ' Gather your pears very carefully, so as not to rub 
off the bloom or break the stalk. On no account 
knock them about so as to bruise them. Put them 
on a dry sweet shelf, to sweat. When the sweating 
is over, rub them dry with a soft cloth, as tenderly 
as if you were dry-rubbing a baby. 

"As soon as they are quite dry, put them, one over 
the other, into the jars or garden j)ots, without any 
sort of packing ; close up the mouth of the jar loosely, 
or of the garden-pot, by whelming the pan or placing 
a piece of slate over it, and stow them away in a 
darkish closet where they cannot get the frost. 

"Open the jars now and then, to see how they are 
getting on. 

October, and they never ripened. I believe the first week in October to be 
the best period to gather winter pears in. 



60 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

^'Do not put more than one sort in the same jar, if 
you can help it. Mind, — the warmer they are kept, 
the faster they will ripen." 

KEEPING PEABS EST A GPEENHOTJSE. 

I have but very recently found that pears may be 
kept in a greenhouse, in great perfection, all the 
winter. 

The greenhouse in which my experiment has been 
tried is a lean-to house with a S. W. aspect, twelve 
feet wide, with a path in the centre, a bench in front 
of common slates laid on wooden bars, and a stage at 
back full of camellias. My pears have been laid on 
the front bench, the glass over them shaded till the 
end of November, the house ventilated, and the 
camellias watered just as if the pears were not there. 
In severe frosts the temperature was kept just above 
freezing. The autumn pears under this treatment 
ripened slowly, and were of excellent flavour. The 
late pears kept till April ; but then, owing to the 
power of the sun, the air of the house become to warm 
and diy, and they shrivelled. I should therefore 
recommend winter pears to be kept in the greenhouse 
in covered pots or jars (I now use large clean flower- 
pots with wooden covers), placing them in them early 
in December. 

Mr. Tillery, of the Wellbeck Grardens, keeps his 
choice pears and apples in boxes of bran with great 
success. The bran before it is used should be 
thorouglily dried and sifted, so as to take from it all 
the small particles of meal. With this treatment 
pears and ajoj^les may be placed in it as soon as they 
are gathered. The boxes should be quite shallow, so 
as to admit of only one layer of fruit, which should 
be covered with the bran and no Hds placed on the 
boxes. The bran is apt to become musty. 

After all, I think there is no better material for 



PYRAMIDAL APPLE TREES ON THE PARADISE APPLE STOCK. 61 

preserving pears pkimp and sound than dry cocoa- 
nut fibre : tliis never turns musty, never ferments, 
but seems to remain under all circumstances perfectly 
inocuous. To preserve pears in this substance they 
should be placed in two layers in shallow open boxes, 
first placing a layer of fibre two inches thick in a box, 
then a layer of pears, which should be covered with 
the fibre, say one inch thick ; on this place another 
layer of pears, and cover them to a depth of two 
inches. The fruit should be occasionally examined 
to ascertain when they are ripe. 

PYEAMIDAL APPLE TREES ON THE PAEADISE APPLE 
STOCK. 

Apples as pyramids on the Paradise stock are 
objects of great beauty and utility. This stock, like 
the quince, is remarkable for its tendency to emit 
numerous fibrous roots near the surface, and for con- 
tracting the growth of the graft, causing it to 
become fruitful at a very early stage. On the 
Continent there are two varieties of the apple under 
this denomination viz., the Doucin and the Pomme 
de Paradis; these are called Paradise stocks in 
England, but on the Continent the first and last are 
used for distinct purposes — the first for pyramids, the 
latter for dwarf bushes. 

The Doucin stock is, I am inclined to think, the 
same as that called "Dutch Creeper," or ''Dutch 
Paradise," by Miller, in his Dictionary, foKo edition 
of 1759. It puts forth abundance of fibrous roots 
near the surface of the soil, and is not inclined to 
root deeply into it hke the crab. Apples grafted on 
this stock are more vigorous than when grafted on 
the French paradise stock, and less so than those on the 
crab ; it is, therefore, well adapted for garden trees, 
for they are easily lifted, their roots thus kept to the 
surface, and the tree consequently kept fi-ee from 



62 THB MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN, 

canker. There is anotlier surface-rooting apple, also 
well adapted for stocks, tlie Burr Knot. This, like 
the Doucin, will strike root, if stout cuttings, two or 
three years old, are planted two-thirds of their length 
in a moist soil : it is a large, handsome, and very- 
good culinary apple. At Ware park, in Hertford- 
shire, this is called Byde's Walking-stick Apple, 
owing to Mr. Byde, the former proprietor of the 
place, often planting branches with his own hand, 
which soon formed nice bearing trees. 

Among apples raised from seed, some will occa- 
sionally be found with this surface-rooting nature ; 
and this is, I suspect, the reason why the Doucin 
stock, under the name of the Paradise, in the 
Enghsh nurseries, differs from the sorts used as 
Doucins in France : there are also several varieties 
cultivated there, some of which are unfitted to our 
climate. 

About forty years since, I raised a large number of 
apples from the pips of the Golden Pippin, Grolden 
Peinette, Pibstone Pippin, and other esteemed sorts. 
These, in course of time, all bore fruit, but as not one 
was found superior to its parent, I did not cultivate 
them. Why I mention this is, that among my seed- 
lings were several that put out roots near the surface, 
and the cuttings of which struck root. It is only 
within these few years that I have had my attention 
drawn to two of these, one of which has very broad 
leaves, and a most healthy and vigorous habit ; the 
other, a habit equally vigorous, but with a great 
tendency to form fruit- spurs. The former I have 
named the Broad-leaved Paradise, the latter, the 
Nonesuch Paradise ; — they are likely to form a 
revolution in apple culture, as the varieties of apples 
grafted on them form such healthy and fruitful trees. 

The Pomme de Paradis seems identical with the 
** dwarf apple of Armenia," referred to in the 



PYRAMIDAL APPLE TREES ON THE PARIDISE APPLE STOCK. €3 

''Journal of the Horticultural Society," Part 2, 
Vol. 3, page 115. It is exceedingly dwarf in its habit, 
and too tender for tliis climate, unless in very warm 
and dry soils. Out of 2000 imported in 1845, more 
than half died the first season, and two- thirds of the 
remainder the following. They were planted in fine 
fertile loam, favourable to the growth of apples, and 
on which the Doucin, planted the same season, grew 
with the greatest vigour. The same result attended 
an importation in 1866. I have now potted some 
plants, and owing, as I suppose, to the roots being 
warmed through the pots by exposure to the sun, 
they seem inchned to make very nice little fruitful 
bushes, — in fact, real miniature apple trees, bearing 
fruit, when only nine inches in height. My trees are 
in eight-inch pots ; but to have healthy fertile trees, 
I should recommend them to be gradually shifted into 
fifteen inch-pots. The citizen may thus have his 
apple orchard on the leads of his house. 

The Enghsh Paradise stock, much like the Doucin, 
and those above-mentioned as my seedlings, are most 
deserving of our attention as stocks for forming fruit- 
ful healthy pyramids, the culture of which is very sim- 
ple. Grafted trees of one, two, or three years' growth, 
with straight leading stems, well furnished with buds 
and branches to the junction with the stock, should 
be planted. No manure should be placed to their 
roots, but some hght friable mould should be shaken 
into them, the earth filled in, trodden down, and two 
or three shovelsful of half-rotted manure laid on the 
surface round each tree. This surface-dressing may 
be given with advantage every succeeding autumn. 
If the soil be very wet and retentive, it will be better 
to plant the trees in small mounds ; and if symptoms 
of canker make their appearance, their roots should 
be examined annually in the autumn, as recommended 
in root-pruning of pears on the quince stock, intro- 



64 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

ducing the spade directly under tlie roots, so as to 
prevent any entering deeply into the soil, and 
bringing all as nearly to the surface as possible, 
filling in the trench with light friable compost ; or the 
tree may be lifted and replanted, which will be found 
more efficient. I firmly believe that canker may 
be entirely prevented by this annual attention to the 
roots. 

If, therefore, the soil be unfavourable, and apt to 
induce a too vigorous growth in apple trees, followed 
by canker, the roots should be annually root-pruned, 
or the trees lifted — i.e., taken up and replanted. If, 
however, the trees make shoots of only moderate 
vigour, and are healthy and fruitful, their roots may 
remain undisturbed ; and pinching their shoots in 
summer, as directed for pp-amidal pears, page 9, and 
training them in a proper direction, is all that they 
will want. Pyramids on the Paradise stock may be 
planted four feet apart in confined gardens ; five feet 
will give them abundance of room : but if, owing to 
the soil being of extra fertility, they are found to re- 
quire more, the trees, if they have been root-pruned, 
may be removed almost without receiving a check, 
even if they are twenty years old. This is a great 
comfort to the amateur gardener, who amuses himself 
with improving his garden ; for how often does a 
favourite fruit tree, which cannot be removed, prevent 
some projected improvement ! 

Apples differ greatly in their habits of growth; 
some are inclined to grow close and compact, like a 
cypress — these are the proper sorts for pyramids ; 
others, horizontally and crooked — these should be 
grown as bushes ; others, again, are slender and thin 
in their growth, so that, to form a good pyramid of 
these slender- growing varieties, it is necessary to 
begin the first year with a young tree, and to pinch 
the leader as soon as it is six inches long. If by any 



PYRAMIDAL APPLE TREES ON THE PARADISE APPLE STOCK. 65 

neglect the lower part of the pyramid be not furnished 
with shoots, but have dormant buds, or buds with 
only two or three leaves attached, a notch must be 
cut, about half an inch in width, just above the bud 
from which a shoot is required. This notch must be 
cut through the outer and inner bark, and alburnum, 
or first layer of wood ; and if the shoot or stem be 
young — say from two to four inches in girth — it may 
be cut round half its circumference. If this be done 
in spring or summer, the following season a shoot 
will generally make its appearance ; sometimes even 
the first season, if the stem or branch be notched 
early in spring- This method of producing shoots 
from dormant buds may be applied with advantage 
to all kinds of fruit trees, except the peach and nec- 
tarine, which are not often inclined to break from a 
dormant bud. 

Varieties of apples, inclined to be compact and 
close in their growth, form very handsome pyramids ; 
but they are apt to be unfruitful, as air enough is not 
admitted to the interior of the tree. This may be 
easily amended, by bringing the lateral shoots down 
to a horizontal position for a year or two, and fasten- 
ing the end of each shoot to a stake ; an open pyra- 
midal shape will thus be attained, which the tree will 
keep. Other varieties put forth their laterals hori- 
zontally, and some are even pendulous. The leading 
perpendicular shoot of varieties of this description 
should be supported by a stake, till the tree is of 
mature age. Iron rods, about the size of small 
curtain-rods, are the most eligible : these, if painted 
with coal-tar and Hme, sifted and mixed with it to the 
consistence of very thick paint, put on boiling hot, 
will last a great many years. 

Apple trees in confined gardens near large towns, 
are often infested with ''American blight," aphis 
lanigera: this makes its appearance on the trees 

F 



€6 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

generally towards tlie middle of summer, like patches 
of cotton wool. There are many remedies given for 
tliis pest; the most efficacious I have yet found is 
soft soap dissolved in soft water, two pounds to the 
gallon, or the Gishurst Compound, sold by Price's 
Candle Company, one pound to the gallon, and 
applied with an old painter's brush. Many remedies, 
such as train oil, spirits of tar, &c., are apt to injure 
the trees : it must be recollected that soft soap will 
turn the leaves brown — in fact, kill them ; but it need 
not be applied to them, as the a^Jiis generally fixes 
itself on the branches. 

Here let me impress upon the lover of his garden, 
living anywhere within reach of smoke, the necessity 
of using the syringe : its efficacy is not half appre- 
ciated by gardening amateurs. As soon as the leaves 
of his fruit trees are fully expanded, every morning 
and every evening, in dry weather, should the atten- 
tive gardener dash on the water with an unspairing 
hand — not with a plaything, but with the perforated 
common syringe, such as a practical gardener would 
use, capable of pouring a sharp stream on to the plant, 
and of dislodging all the dust or soot that may have 
accumulated in twelve hours. For apple and pear 
trees in pots, or in small city gardens, this syringing 
is absolutely necessary. 

Pinching the shoots of pyramidal apple trees, and, 
indeed, exactly the same method of managing the 
trees as given for pyramidal pears on the quince stock, 
may be followed with a certainty of success ; and the 
proprietor of a very small garden may thus raise 
apple trees which will be sure to give him much 

f ratification. To have fine fruit, the clusters should 
e thinned in June ; and small trees should not be 
overburdened, for they are often inclined, like young 
j)ear trees on the quince stock, to bear too many fruit 
when in a very young state ; the constitution of the 



APPLES AS BUSHES ON THE PARADISE STOCK. 



«T 



tree then receives a shock wliicli it will take two or 
three seasons to recover. For varieties with large 
fruit, one on each fruit-bearing spur will be enough ; 
if a small sort, from two to three will be sufficient. 

There are so many really good apples that it is diffi- 
cult to make a selection : the following sorts will not 
dissappoint the planter ; but fifty varieties in addition, 
quite equal in quality, could be selected. 

Twenty dessert apples, ripening from July to June, 
placed in the order of their ripening : — 



1. White Joanneting * 


11. Mannington's Pearmaln 


2. Early Red Margaret 


12. Golden Drop (Coe's)* 


3. Red Astrachan 


13. Ashmead's Kernel* 


4. Early Strawberry 


14. Nonpareil, Old 


5. Irish Peach * 


15. Reinette Van Mona* 


6. Slimmer Golden Pippin 


16. Syke House Russet 


7. Kerry Pippin * 


17. Keddleston Pippin 


8. Margil 


18. Golden Harvey 


9. Ribston Pippin * 


19. Winter Peach Apple 


10. Cox's Orange Pippin * 


20. Sturmer Pippin * 


Twenty kitchen apples, 


fit for use from July t 


June : — 




1. Keswick Codlin* 


11. Herefordshire Pearmain* 


2. Large Yellow Bough 


12. Winter Pearmain 


3. Hawthornden* 


13. Bedfordshire Foundling* 


4. Cellini 


14. Greenup's Pippin 


5. King of the Pippins 


15. Dumelow's Seedling* 


6. Blenheim Pippin* 


16. Forge Apple 


7. Calville Blanche 


17. Rymer 


8. New Hawthornden 


18. Baxter's Pearmain* 


9. striped Beefing * 


19. St. Saveur* 


10. Waltham Abbey Seedling 


20. Gooseberry Apple * 



APPLES AS BUSHES ON THE PARADISE STOCK. 

There are some varieties of apples that do not form, 
even with care, well-shaped pyramids ; such sorts 
may be cultivated as bushes when grafted on the Para- 
dise stock, and are then excellently well adapted for small 
gardens. I have, indeed, reason to think that a 
great change may be brought about in suburban fruit 
culture by these bush trees. I have shown in pp. 18 
and 19, how bush pears on quince stocks may be 
cultivated. Pears are, however, a luxury: apples 



68 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

and plums are necessaries to the families of countless 
thousands living near London. Ajiple bushes, always 
very pretty and productive trees, may be planted four 
feet apart, row from row, and four feet apart in the 
rows. If two or three years old when planted, they 
will begin to bear even the first season after planting. 
They should be kept from the attacks of the green 
aphis in summer by dressing the young shoots with 
the quassia mixture, given in a note to p. 96, and 
from the woolly aphis by Gishurst compound, men- 
tioned in page 66. The principal feature in this 
culture is summer pinching, which must be regularly 
attended to, from early in June till the end of August: 
this is done by pinching or cutting off the end of 
every shoot as soon as it has made five or six leaves, 
leaving from three to four full sized ones. Some 
varieties of the apple have their leaves very thickly 
placed on the shoots ; with them it is better not to 
count the leaves, but to leave the shoots from three 
and a half to four inches in length. If the soil be 
rich, and the trees inclined to grow too vigorously, 
they may be removed biennially, as recommended for 
bush pears, by digging a circular trench one foot 
from the stem of the tree, and then introducing the 
spade under its roots, heaving it up so as to detach 
them all from the soil, and then filling in the earth 
dug from the trench and treading it gently on to the 
roots. The following sorts are well adapted for this 
bush culture, but the upright varieties recommended 
for pyramids form nice compact bushes.^ 

Urabant Bellefleur, kitchen April 

Cornish Arou atic, dessert May 

Earlj- Harvest, dessert August 

Emperor Alexander, kitchen October 

Gravenstein, kitchen or dessert November 

(1) These dwarf bushes are liable to be p'nawed by rabbits and hares in 
exposed gardens. The best of all preventives is to paint them with soot 
and milk, well mixed ; or make a fence with galvanized wire netting, round 
the garden in which they are planted. 



APPLES AS BUSHES FOR MARKET GARDENS. 69 

Cox's Oiann-e Pippin, dessert October 

Cox's Pomona, kitchen Deceu.ber 

Lord Burghley, dessert May 

Hawthornden, kitchen J No? emVer 

Joanneting (white), dessert July 

Melon Apple, dessert Februai-y 

M ere de Menage, kitchen December 

Nonesuch, kitchen October 

Pomme Royale, kitchen or dessert April 

Reinette dvi Canada, kitchen or dessert .... May 

Ribston Pippin, dessert December 

South Carolina Pippin, kitchen December 

Spring Ribst^n Pippin, dessert May 

Victoria, dessert April 

"Waltham Abbey Seedling, kitchen December 

There is no mode of apple culture more interesting 
tlian bush culture. On page 711 annex a sketch of 
a plantation of Cox's Orange Pippin (Fig. 14), of one 
hundred trees ; they were planted in the spring of 
1862. They bore a fine crop in 1863 of most beauti- 
ful fruit, and in 1864 gave a crop almost too abundant. 

APPLES AS BUSHES FOR MARKET GARDENS. 

Our market gardeners, as a rule, are very deficient 
in their knowledge of fruit-tree culture, and they 
have much to learn. The usual practice with them 
is to plant standard or half standard trees in rows, 
some twenty or thirty feet apart, and between them 
gooseberry and currant trees. The ground is dug 
between the trees in spring deeply, and often care- 
lessly. Nothing can be more barbarous, for the 
ground is so shaded that no surface roots can have 
the benefit of the air and the heat of the sun ; and if 
by any chance they could come to the surface, they 
are, as a matter of course, destroyed by the spade. 
It is true that in some of the rich market gardens 
near London large quantities of fruit are grown in 
spite of the uncouth treatment the trees receive, but 
this does not alter the case. 

In a well-ordered fruit garden every kind of fruit 
should have its department, and instead of seeing, as 



70 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

in Kent, a row of trees of all sorts, mixed in the most 
heterogeneous manner, no mixture of species should 
be allowed ; every kind should have its allotment, — 
apples on the Paradise stock, ditto on the crab stock, 
pears on the quince stock, the same on the pear stock. 
Morello cherries as pyramids on the Mahaleb stock — 
the best of all methods for their culture — and the 
various kinds of Duke cherries on the same kind of 
stock. Heart and Bigarreau cherries on the common 
cherry stock, plums as bushes, pyramids, or half stan- 
dards, should all be separated, and not planted 
higgledy-piggledy, as they have been and are now. 
The sound-headed market gardener will, when his 
mind is turned to improved fruit-tree culture, see all 
this, and make his fruit garden a pattern of order. 

I have been led into these remarks on market 
garden fruit-tree culture by my own experience, and 
especially into a consideration of the great improve- 
ment that may be made in the culture of apples on 
the EngHsh Paradise stock. On referring to p. 69, 
the reader will find that I allude to my plantation of 
Oox's Orange Pippin apple trees on the* Paradise 
stock (see Pig. 14.); these trees in the season of 
1864, the third of their growth in their present 
quarters and the fourth of their age, gave an 
average of a quarter of a peck from each tree, so that 
we might have from 4840 trees, growing on one acre 
of ground, 302 bushels of fine apples worth 5s. per 
bushel, or £75. In 1866, the trees then averaging 
half-a-peck each, would double this sum, and make 
an acre of apple trees a very agreeable and eligible 
investment. The kinds likely to sell best in the 
markets, and which are most productive, are the 
following : — Cox's Orange Pippin, Reinnette Van 
Mens, Kibston Pippin, Sturmer Pippin, Scarlet 
Nonpareil, and Dutch Mignonne ; these are dessert 
apples. The following are valuable kitchen apples. 



APPLES AS BUSHES FOR MARKET GARDENS. 



71 




and abundant bearers ; — Hawthornden, New 
Hawtliornden, Small's Admirable, Cox's Pomona, 
Keswick Codlin, Damelow's Seedling, Lord Suffield, 
Norfolk Bearer, Duchess of Oldenburg, and Forge 



72 ITHE MINIATtTRE FRtJIT GARDEN. 

Apple. Sucli large varieties as Bedfordshire 
Foundling, Blenheim Orange, and Warner's King, 
should have more space, and be planted four feet 
apart, and be thinned out hj removal to eight feet 
apart, as recommended for pear trees, p. 56. The 
proper method of planting and managing these bush 
apple trees, is exactly that recommended for bush 
pear trees on quince stocks. 

It may be by some made a question of expense, 
for although the return must be large and pro- 
fitable, the purchase of nearly 5000 apple trees 
would involve a large outlay. To this I reply — 
first, that stocks costing only a small sum per 1000 
may be planted and grafted where the trees are to 
grow permanently ; and, secondly, that a large de- 
mand which my method of planting would create, 
will also create a cheap supply. The preparation 
of an acre of ground should be as follows : — It 
should, previous to planting, be forked over to a 
depth of twenty inches (if very poor and exhausted, 
from thirty to forty tons of manure may be forked 
in,) — not more, as trees such as I have recom- 
mended, viz., pears on the quince stock, and apples 
on the English Paradise stock do not root deeply— 
this ought to cost £6 13s 4:d. The annual expenses 
are, forking the surface in Spring, £1 Qs. 8d., and 
hoeing the ground, say four times during the Sum- 
mer, £1 4s. I give the amounts paid here for such 
work. Then comes the Summer pinching of the 
shoots by a light-fingered active youth, and this 
may, at a guess, be put down at £1, making the 
aggregate annual expenses £3 10s. 8d., or, say £4 
per acre. The large return will amply afford this 
outlay, even adding, as we ought to do, the interest 
on capital, and rent. 

It will be seen that what I propose is in reality a 



APPLES AS BUSHES FOR MARKET GARDENS. 73 

Nursery Orchard whicli may be made to furnisli 
fruit and trees for a considerable number of years. 
To fully comprehend this we must suppose a rood 
of g-round planted, as I have described, with 1210 
bush apple trees. In the course of eight or ten years 
half of these, or 605, may be removed to a fresh 
plantation, in which they may be planted six feet 
apart ; they will at once occupy half an acre of 
ground. At the end of sixteen or eighteen years 
every alternate row of trees in the first plantation— 
the rood— -will require to be removed, which will give 
302 trees to be planted, six feet apart, leaving 303 in 
the original rood. The 1210 trees will by this time 
occupy one acre of ground at six feet apart. With 
proper summer pruning or pinching they will not 
require any further change, but continue to grow and 
bear fruit as long as they are properly cultivated. 
The great advantage reaped by the planter is the 
constant productiveness of his trees ; from the second 
year after planting they will be always " paying their 
way." 

The unprejudiced fruit cultivator will quickly find 
out the great advantage of my mode of apple and 
pear cultivation. Still, it may be thought too serious 
a business to attend to three or four thousand trees 
per acre, and only adapted to a very humble culti- 
vator ; I ought therefore, to state that those who 
wish to cultivate apples and pears for market purposes 
may with a sound prospect of success, if the soil and 
climate are favorable, plant apples on the English 
paradise stock, and pears on the quince stocks, either 
as pyramids or bushes, six feet apart 1,210 per acre) 
row from row, and six feet apart in the rows. This 
distance will admit of light crops of vegetables for 
two feet in the centre between each row for several 
years, and till the trees — which muet be under summer 
pinching — cover the ground. 



74 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

In the usual old-fashioned mode, Standard apple 
trees are planted in orchards at 20 feet apart, or 108 
trees to the acre; if the soil be good and the trees 
properly planted, and the planter a healthy middle- 
aged man, he may hope at the end of his threescore 
and ten, to see his trees commencing to bear, and 
may die with the reflection that he has left a valuable 
orchard as a legacy to his children, but has not had 
much enjoyment of it during his life. Now, although, 
like most fathers, I have a strong wish to benefit 
my children, I hold the idea that one ought also to 
think of one's own gratification ; and so I have planted 
and recommend the planting of such trees as will 
give me some satisfaction, yet leave a fertile inheri- 
tance to my children. 

A French pomologist, who paid me a visit in 1864, 
said, "Ah ! now I find an Englishman planting for 
himself as well as for his children;" and went on to 
say that he was struck by seeing in England so many 
Standard trees in market gardens, the planters of which 
could have derived but small benefit from them ; and the 
apparent ignorance of fruit gardening as a lucrative 
occupation. This he, in fact, imputed to our climate 
which Frenchman-like, he thought totally unfit for 
fruit culture in the open air, yet felt much surprised 
to see here the produce of a well cultivated English fruit 
garden, in a climate not nearly so favorable as the 
valley of the Thames. 

I have only to add that, besides my plantation of 
Cox's Orange Pippin, I have another of upwards of 
400 trees, which has now been in existence upwards 
of ten years, so that I am not theorising, but deducing 
facts from a sound basis. 

APPLES AS SINGLE LATERAL CORDONS. 

The French gardeners often train an apple tree "en 



APPLES AS SINGLE LATERAL CORDONS. 



76 



cordon horizontale, " as an edging" to the borders in 
their kitchen gardens, after the following mode : A 
tree grafted on the Paradise or Doncin stock, with a 
single shoot, is planted in a sloping position, and the 
shoot trained along a wire, about ten or twelve inches 
from the surface, (^ig. 15.) 




Fig. 15 



To carry out this method of training, oak posts, 
about three inches in diameter and two feet in length, 
should be sharpened at one end and driven into the 
ground, so that they stand one foot above the surface ; 
they may be from thirty to forty yards distant from 
each other. 

From these a piece of galvanized or common iron 
wire — if the latter it should be painted — about the 
thickness of whipcord, should be strained and sup- 
ported nine inches from the ground at intervals of six 
feet by iron pins eighteen inches long, the size of a 
small curtain rod, or smaller, flattened at top and 
pierced with a hole, to allow the wire to pass through; 
these should be stuck into the ground, so as to stand 
on a level with the straining posts. The trees should 
be planted six feet apart, and when the top of one tree 
reaches to another the young shoot may be grafted on 
to the base of the next, so as to form a continuous cordon. 
This is best done by merely taking off a slip of bark, 
two inches long, from the under part of the young 
shoot, and a corresponding piece of bark from the 
upper part of the stem of the tree to which it is to be 



76 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

nnited, so that they fit tolerably well. They should 
then be firmly bound with bast and a bunch of moss — 
a handful — as firmly bound over the union ; the bind- 
ing-, as well as the moss, may remain on till autumn. 
The trees do not grow so rapidly as common grafts, 
so that the ligatures will not cut into the bark. 

Every side shoot of these cordons should be rigorously 
pinched down to three leaves all the summer. It will 
of course occur to the reader, that the spurs would 
soon make the tree a thick and clumsy cordon, to 
prevent this every spur should be reduced in winter 
to about half its length, and some of the crowded 
blossom buds removed with a very sharp knife. 
The fruit, from being near the earth, and thus profit- 
ing largely by radiation, will be very fine. 

As these low cordons are very apt to be injured in 
winter by severe frost, if snow is suffered to lie under 
them, which by resisting radiation gives great inten- 
sity to frost just above its surface, it is necessary 
either to carefully remove the snow, to bank it up so 
as to completely cover the cordons, or to thatch them 
with a covering of evergreen branches, such as furze, 
or of firs, fern would also be a safe protection — better 
than all, are wooden ridges made of -| inch boards, so 
as to cover two or three rows of trees. For pear 
trees there should be boards on one side and glass on 
the other, they would then do to protect the blossoms 
in spring, and bring on the fruit if placed on bricks 
as directed for ground vineries. 

The double, or two-branched lateral 
cordon, see Fig. 16, which is a great 
improvement on the French single cor- 
don, requires the same training, pinch- 
ing-in, and management. This improved 
lateral cordon does not require a wire to 
kind of support its branches, a hook. 



APPLES AS SINGLE LATERAL CORDONS. 



77 



gometliing' after a sheplierd's crook may be used 
with advantage, thus ; the branch is introduced at a 
and is supported bj the crook. 

The quadruple lateral cordon is a tree well adapted 
for the edging of the borders of the kitchen garden, it is 



APPLES A3 SINGLE LATERAL CORDONS. 79 

merely the double cordon repeated, and we must 
suppose the two branches of the double cordon to be 
trained nine inches from the surface of the ground, 
and above them, at about nine inches distance, two 
other branches in the same direction ; this will give 
the quadruple cordon, or low espalier edging tree, 
occupying no more space than the single cordon, and 
giving double its produce. The stem of the short 
crook for single or double cordons should be 20 inches 
long, that of the longer one, for quadruple cordons, 
should be 28 inches long. 

The great change in fruit culture that may be 
brought about by training these double lateral 
cordons under glass ridges is obvious enough. The 
figure (18) will give some faint idea of the advantages 
of this new system of culture — they are endless ; 
for not only can peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, 
apples and pears be rescued from spring frosts, but 
their fruit be ripened in great perfection. There is 
no doubt but that in some of our cold and cloudy 
places in the north of England and Scotland, where 
even the Rib stone Pippin will not ripen, it may be 
brought to perfection under the glass fruit ridge. 

The figure (Fig. 18) gives but one tree trained to 
one wire ; two rows of wire may, however, be trained 
under one glass ridge, which should be three feet 
six inches wide at base, and the wires ten inches 
asunder. It is quite possible that this method of 
training to galvanized wires may, in some situations, 
be better adapted to vine culture than allowing the 
vines to rest on slates or tiles. 

I now, by permission, copy the description of my 
new glass fruit ridge from my article in the Gardener's 
Chronicle for April 8, 1865, from which I have also 
derived the plate kindly ]ent to me : 

"There are no cross bars, but merely a frame three 



APPLES AS SINGLE LATERAL CORDONS. 81 

feet wide at the base. On the top bar a, is a groove 
half an inch deep ; in the bottom bar h, is a groove a 
quarter of an inch deep ; ^ in the end bars c and d, are 
grooves half an inch deep. The pieces of glass, 
which should be cut so as to fit, are pushed into the 
upper groove, and let fall into the lower one ; when 
all are fitted in, the two end pieces are pushed in- 
wards, so as to drive all of them into close contact. 
A little putty is required at the bottom to prevent 
water lodging, and some at each end to keep the pieces 
from moving laterally, e, e, are the straining posts 
of oak, four inches square; /, the upright pieces of 
wire stuck in the ground, flattened and perforated at 
top to pass the wire through and support it: g, the 
wire." 

Such, then, is the description of the new barless 
glass fruit ridge — the invention of my son, — which 
I think calculated to have a greater effect on domes- 
tic gardening, and contribute more to the refine- 
ment and comfort of a very large class of people 
than all the crystal palaces ever invented. I feel 
that I ought to add how and where these nice things 
are to be bought. 

Mr. James Rivett, builder of Stratford, Essex, 
makes and sells them at 5s. Qd. or Qs. each, unglazed. 
Those who would wish to hav^ a large number, and 
who live at a long distance from London, should 
have a few from Mr. Rivett as samples; they could 
then be imitated by any good labourer. 

For ventilation and other particulars I refer my 
readers to the description of the ground vinery, p. 
124; and for the method of placing the wires, to p. 
78. _ 

I must caution those who wish to grow fruit under 

(1) An improvement on this is to have a rebate at bottom instead of a 
groove ; the glass is more easily fitted in. 



82 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

glass fruit ridges, in small confined gardens, to be 
careful as to ventilation. A single row of bricks, with 
apertures of four inches, will not be enough ; there 
should be two rows of bricks, one over the other, and 
consequently two rows of apertures. Peach, nectarine, 
and apricot trees should be planted twenty-one feet 
apart ; but they grow rapidly, and would probably 
require occasional removing. 

It will thus be seen that to commence glass fruit 
ridge culture, three seven-feet lengths should bepre- 
pared, and in the centre of the twenty-one feet 
occupied by the ridge two peach or nectarine trees may 
be planted. They will soon form lateral cordons of 
great fertility, will require pinching weekly, and give 
constant employment to the amateur. I must not 
omit to state the great advantage, this mode of fruit 
culture gives as to protection from spring frosts wben 
the trees are in bloom., or when the fruit is young. 
Espaliers, pyramids and wall trees are difficult to 
protect, but mats two or three thick can be piled on 
the ridge with great facility, and loose straw or hay, 
the best protectors possible from frost, can be strewed 
over them thickly. 

I have had this season (1868) the pleasure of 
seeing all my anticipations fully realised ; the cordon 
pear-trees have produced fruit large and with the fine 
clear rinds we see on those grown in the warm parts 
of France — perfectly beautiful and of fine flavour. 
The cordon peach-trees have produced fruit large and 
of the finest flavour. Strawberries planted between 
the trees temporarily till they fully occupy the room 
under the ridge, ripened a fortnight earlier than those 
in the open air, and were of excellent quality. I have 
therefore no hesitation in recommending this mode of 
fruit culture to all amateurs who have gardens without 
walls or orchard houses. 



VERTICAL (GORDON APPLE TREES. 



83 




Fig. 19 
VEETICAL COEDON APPLE TREE?. 

In pp. 43 and 44 will be found the metliod of 
training vertical cordon pear trees. This may be 
applied to apples on the English Paradise stock with 
great success, and very charming fruitful trees they 
m.ake. They should not be allowed to grow above 
eight feet in height, to which they will reach in the 
course of four or five years. I annex a figure of one 
these trees, three years old, and full of fruit. (Fig. 19.) 

APPLES AS WALL TREES. 

We have been so accustomed to think of, and treat 



84 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

the apple tree as hardy and perfectly adapted to our 
insular climate, that the culture of superior varieties 
as wall trees, has been neglected, except in the extreme 
north of our island, where the chmate is not very 
favourable even to the culture of the Eibston Pippin 
as an orchard tree. 

The varieties most worthy of cultivation against 
walls in England, even in our most favoured counties 
with regard to climate are mostly of American origin, 
the continental varieties, with but very few exceptions 
not being remarkable for goodness of quality. 
The best methods of cultivation are : — 
1 . To have the trees trained as espaliers to low 
walls as directed for pear trees (p. 37), the trees to be 
under summer-pinching as given p. 26. 2. To plant 
five-branched upright cordons in the spaces so often 
found between wall-trees in old gardens. 3. To plant 
single vertical cordons, see fig. 18, against walls 
between estabhshed wall trees, these should have all 
the shoots and spurs cut ofi" closely on one of the trees 
so that the stem may be easily fastened to the wall 
with a band or even two or three strong shreds. 
Single vertical cordon apple trees grafted on the 
English paradise stock and planted against walls 10 
to 12 feet high, the trees well managed, by summer- 
pinching become amazingly prohfic, and bear the 
finest of fruit. 4. To train at the foot of a wall the 
single lateral cordon fig. 15, or the double lateral 
cordons, fig. 16, if the space next the wall and under 
the trees be paved with tiles or slates, the size and 
quahty of the fruit will be improved. I ought here 
to mention that double or two-branched lateral 
cordon pear trees may be grown at the foot of walls, 
but not more than 9 inches from them, the tile-paving 
is with pears quite necessary, as is also protection in 
spring from frosts. This is most eliectuaily done by 
lean-to barless lights in foot of the glass span ridge 



PYRAMIDAL APPLES ON THE CRAB STOCK. 85 

(fig. 17) divided into two ; these most convenient lean- 
to lights should be 2 feet 4 inches wide, including the 
top and bottom bars, and 7 feet long, two hooks 
should be fixed to the top bar, and two eyes in the 
wall so that the lights are made safe from the effects 
of the wind. The lower bar should rest on bricks 
(they should be two deep), as with ground vineries. 
These lean-to lights will be found a most useful in- 
vention, they form so fine a climate against brick 
walls, that I see no reason why low 4 inch brick walls 
should not be built by market-gardeners ; other lean- 
to lights of increased size employed for early crops, 
the climate they give is perfect, so efiicient is the low 
admission of root in between the bricks, and the exit 
of the heated air at the top, between the upper bar, 
and the wall, an interstice of about two inches. 

The varieties of apples most worthy of wall culture 
are of American origin, viz., the Newtown Pippin, 
Washington, Bar's Apple, Melon, Northern Spy, Fall 
Pippin, Lady's Sweeting, and some others. 

The French Apple, Calville Branche, is also of high 
excellence, cultivated as a wall or orchard house tree, 
and in cool climates, our fine English apples, the Golden 
Pippin, Pibston Pippin and Lord Burleigh are quite 
worthy of a place against a wall with a southern asj^ect. 

PYRAMIDAL APPLES ON THE CRAB STOCK. 

In soils light and poor, the apple on the Paradise 
stock is, unless carefully manured on the surface, apt 
to become stunted and unhealthy. In such soils, and 
also in those of a very tenacious nature, pyramids on 
the crab stock may be planted with great advantage. 
They are also well adapted for large gardens where 
large quantities are required, as the trees may be 
made to form handsome pyramids, from twelve to 
fifteen feet in height. 

Carefully watch the trees, for there is one thing 
most essential to their full success as pyramids, — they 



86 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

must eitlier be lifted or taken up biennially early in 
November, and replanted in tbe manner recommended 
for busb pear trees, or root-pruned biennially, op- 
erating upon the trees alternately, as mentioned in 
note to p. 13; or the following sj^stem may be adopted : 
neither remove nor root-prune any tree that continues 
to grow with, moderation, does not canker, and bears 
well ; but any tree that makes shoots from eighteen 
inches to three feet in length, remove once in two, 
three, or four years till its vigorous habit is reduced. 

As these crab stock trees grow freely, summer 
pinching or shortening the young shoots with a pen- 
knife, as recommended in p. 68, must be attended to, 
and then, in the most unfavourable apple tree soils, 
healthy and most prolific pyramids may be formed. 
Any of the varieties recommended in pp. 68 and 69 
will succeed well as pyramids on the crab stock. 

If managed as I have directed, fine trees may be 
formed, not only of the robust-growing kinds, but 
even of the old Nonpareil, Golden Pippin, Golden 
Heinette, Hawthornden, Bibston Pippin, and several 
others, all more or less inclined to canker. I have a 
row of Nonpareils and Pibston Pippins planted in 
the coldest and most unfavourable soil I could find, 
yet, owing to their being biennially removed, they 
are entirely free from canker. 

The vigorous growth of standard apples, when 
planted in orchards in the usual way, is well known, 
and also their tendency to canker after a few years of 
luxuriant growth. Pyramids on the crab, without 
occasional removal, or root-pruning, would, in like 
manner, grow most freely, and even if subjected to 
summer pinching, would soon become a mass of 
entangled, barren, cankered shoots. 

PYKAMIDAL PLUM TREES. 

The plum, if planted in a rich garden soil, rapidly 



PYEAMIDAL PLUM TREES. 87 

forms a pyramid of large growth., — it, in fact, can 
scarcely be managed by summer pincliing. It be- 
comes crowded with young shoots and leaves, and 
the shortening of its strong horizontal branches at 
the end of summer is apt to bring on the gum : it is 
a tree, however, with most manageable roots, for 
they are always near the surface. I must, therefore, 
again recommend summer pinching to three leaves, 
as directed for pears, p. 9, annual or biennial root- 
pruning, and surface dressing, in preference to any 
other mode of culture. The root-pruning of the plum is 
performed as follows: — Open a circular trench 
eighteen inches deep round the tree, eighteen inches 
from its stem, and cut off every root and fibre with a 
sharp knife. When the roots are so pruned, intro- 
duce a spade under one side of the tree, and heave 
it over so as not to leave a single tap-root ; fill in 
your mould, give a top dressing of manure, and it is 
finished. The diameter of your circular trench must 
be slowly increased as years roll on ; for you must, 
each year, prune to within one-and-a-half or two 
inches of the stumps of the former year. Your cir- 
cular mass of fibrous roots will thus slowly increase, 
your tree will make short and well-ripened shoots, 
and bear abundantly. From very recent experience, 
I have found that removing trees annually, if the 
soil be rich, — biennially, and adding some rich com- 
post, if it be poor — loitJiout root-pruning, will keep 
plum trees in a healthy and fertile state. For further 
particulars on this head, see pp. 12 and 13. 

Pyi^amidal plum trees are most beautiful trees both 
when in flower and fruit. Their rich purple and 
golden crop has an admirable effect on a well-managed 
pyramid. No stock has yet been found to cramp the 
energies of the plum tree. I have, however, tried 
experiments on the sloe, which, as it never forms a 
tree of any bulk, effects this object to a certain ex- 



88 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

tent. My trees on the sloe are some years old, and 
are dwarf and prolific. The first year after grafting 
they made vigorous growth ; but this is a very com- 
mon occurrence with stocks that ultimately make 
very prolific trees ; it is so with the pear on the 
quince, the apple on the Paradise, and the cherry on 
the Mahaleb. The greengage seems to grow more 
freely on the sloe than any other sort. I have three 
fine vigorous bushes, now about ten years old, grow- 
ing in the white marly clay, with chalk-stones, 
peculiar to some parts of Essex and Hertfordshire. 
The sloe seems to delight in this soil, so inimical to 
most kinds of fruit trees. My greengage plums are 
almost vigorous in their growth ; and what appears 
strange is, that the stock seems to keep pace with 
the graft — there is scarcely any swelling at the junc- 
tion. The roots of these trees have not been touched, 
and they appear to have gone deeply into the solid 
white clay. The plum on the sloe is easily arrested 
in its growth by root-pruning. I have some trees, 
four years old, not more than eighteen inches 
high, and yet covered with blossom buds.* These 
have been only once root-pruned, and are forming 
themselves into nice compact proHfic bushes. As no 
peculiar culture, or disease, requires to be noticed, I 
have only to give a selection of sorts calculated for 
pyramids. These are also well adapted for walls with 
W., N.W., E., or S.E. aspects. 

HARDY DESSERT PLTJMS ADAPTED FOE PYRAMIDS. 

In season from July to the end of October. Placed in the order of their 
ripening. 



Early Favourite* 
July Green Gage* 
De Montfort 
Oullins' Golden Gage 
Green Gage* 
Jeflerson* 



Kirke's* 

Transparent Gage* 
Purple Gage 
Guthrie's Late Green 
Reine Claude de Bavay* 
Bryanstone Gage 



(1) Since this was written, I have found plums grafted on the plum stock 
so easily dwarfed by annual or biennial removal, that unless in hard clayey 



HARDY KITCHEN PLUMS ADAPTED FOR PYRAMIDS. 89 



HARDY KITCHEN PLUMS ADAPTED FOR PYRAI^IIDS. 

In season from July till the end of Octoher. Placed in the order of their 
ripening. . 



Early Prolific* 
Belgian Purple* 
Pond's Seedling 
Prince Engelbert 
Victoria or Alderton* 
Mitchelson's 



Dove Bank 
Diamond* 
Imperial de Milan 
Autumn Compote* 
Late Black Orleans* 
Belle de Septembre* 



PLTJM TREES AS BUSHES. 

There is, perhaps, no fruit tree so easily kept 
within bounds as the plum. In rich soils they bear 
annual removal with but a slight check ; but in most 
soils biennial removal will keep them in a perfectly 
fruitful state under bush culture. This is absolutely 
necessary; and if the soil be poor, some thoroughly 
rotted manure (about half a bushel to each tree) may 
be mixed with the soil in replanting. As with pear 
trees, the best season for lifting or removing them is 
the end of October or beginning of November. Plum 
bushes have the advantage of being easily protected 
by a square of light cheap calico, tiffany, or any 
light material, thrown over them while in blossom, 
and a crop of fruit thus insured. All the varieties 
recommended for pjTamids may be cultivated as 
bushes, and for suburban gardens, they should be 
subjected to exactly the same treatment as recom- 
mended for apple bushes, p. 72. 

PLUM TREES AS CORDON'S. 

The plum forms a most prolific lateral double 
cordon and gives very fine fruit, when pruned and 
trained after the fashion of pear trees. Owing, 
however, to the fruit often receiving injury from 
heavy rains, it is almost indispensable to have a 
space under each tree paved with tiles, and a work 

soils, found to be unfavorable to the plum, there is no occasion to employ 
the sloe stock, unless as an experiment. 



^9 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

of necessity to protect the trees from spring frosts, 
for they (the trees) come into blossom so early, owini 
to their receiving the reflected heat from the soil in 
early spring, that seldom or never does the younff 
fruit survive the month of April. One of the best 
modes of protection are those ridges of glass and 
boards described p. 81, for if placed on bricks, they 
may remam over the trees till the commencement of 
the first week in June, here a period of rejoicing, 
for not till then are we safe from the fruit growers 
scourge— a severe spring frost. There is a method 
of cultivating a few kinds of plums as vertical 
cordons practised here which is likely to be popular, 
it IS simply selecting the proper sorts (fii-st catching 
your hare), and then planting them in ground not 
too rich,-— say a calcareous sandy loam, and then 
pinching in, during the summer, all the young shoots 
as directed pp. 41 and 42, and trusting to this, to re- 
strain the growth of the trees, without either root- 
pruning or removal. 

The varieties adapted to this mode of culture, 
are as yet but few, viz :— Oullins Golden Gage' 
Eeme Claude de Bavay, Belgian Purple, Large 
Black Imperial, Cluster Damson and Prince Engel- 
bert, of the latter kind upwards of 1000 trees are 
planted here for fruit bearers, they are now five 
years old, and are becoming compact fertile cypress- 
like trees. In the course of time, there wiU doubt- 
less be many kinds of plums adapted to this mode of 
culture, for here we have 2000 seedling plums all 
raised from choice varieties, and likely to give kinds 
as weU adapted to our climate, as is the Early Elvers 
or Early Prolific, well known to be the hardiest plum 
known, and yet only the first removed by seed, from 
one of the most tender French varieties, Precoce de 
Tours plum. 
These vertical cordon plums should be planted 



CHERRIES AS BUSHES AND PYRAMIDS ON THE MAHALEB STOCK. 91 

from 4 to 5 feet apart, row from row, and the same 
distance tree from tree, the former distance will allow 
of 2700 trees per acre, the latter 1700, and as far as 
I can see, many years will elapse before they will 
require thinning, and they will bear many bushels 
of fruit per acre. 

CHERRIES AS BUSHES AND PYRAMIDS ON THE MAHALEB 
STOCK (CERASUS MAHALEB). 

This stock has been long known in our shrubberies 
as the ''Perfumed Cherry:" its wood when buimed 
emits a most agreeable perfume. In France it is 
called "Bois de St. Lucie," and it has been used 
there for dwarf cherries for very many years ; — why 
it has not been employed by English nurserymen, I 
cannot tell. My attention was called to it in France 
some twenty or more years ago, since which I have 
used it extensively, annually increasing my culture. 
Its great recommendation is, that cherries grafted on 
it will flourish in soils unfavourable to them on the 
common cherry stock, such as strong white clay, or 
soils with a chalky subsoil. Although the trees grow 
most vigorously the first two or three seasons, yet, 
after that period, and especially if root-pruned, they 
form dwarf prolific bushes, so as easily to be covered 
with a net, or, what is better, with muslin or tiffany, 
which will protect the blossoms from frost in spring, 
and the fruit more effectually from bii'ds and wasps 
in summer; thus giving us, what is certainly most 
rare, cherries fully ripe, and prolonging their season 
till September. These dwarf bushes may be 
planted fi'om five to six feet apart, and their 
branches pruned so that seven, or nine, or more, 
come out from the centre of the plant, like a well- 
managed gooseberry bush. These branches will, in 
May or June, put forth, as in the horizontal shoots of 
pyraiaidal pears, several shoots at their extremities, 



92 THE MlNIATrRE FRUIT GARDEN. 

all of which, must be pinched off to three leaves, 
leaving the leading shoots untouched till the middle 
or end of August, when they must be shortened, and 
the pruning for the year is finished. 

The Morello and Duke cherries — the most eligible 
for this bush culture — may have their leading shoots 
shortened to eight leaves. If, however, the space be 
confined in which they are planted, this length may 
be reduced, for by biennial root-pruning, the trees 
may be kept exceedingly dwarf. The end is to form 
the tree into a round bush, not too much crowded 
with shoots. Towards the end of September,^ or, in 
fact, as soon as the autumnal rains have sufiiciently 
penetrated the soil, a trench may be dug round the 
tree, exactly the same as recommended for root- 
pruning of pears, the spade introduced under the tree 
to cut all perpendicular roots, and all the spreading 
roots shortened with the knife, and brought near to 
the surface, previously filling in the trench with some 
light friable soil for them to rest on, and spreading 
them regularly round the tree, as near to the surface 
as possible ; then covering them with the soil that 
was taken out of the trench. No dung or manure of 
any kind is required, as this stock seems to flourish 
in the poorest soils. Some short litter, or half decayed 
leaves will, however, be of much benefit placed on 
the surface round the stem. 

I have thus far given their culture for small 
gardens ; but those who have more sj)ace may dis- 
pense with root-pruning, and allow their cherry 
trees to make large bushes, which may be planted 
eight feet apart and pinched regularly in the 
summer, and managed as directed for pear trees 
(p. 8). The leading shoot from each branch in such 

(1) This early autumnal root-pruninff will be found very advantacreous. 
The flow of sap is checked, so that the shoots are well ripened, and the 
roots soon emit fresh fibres to feed the tree the following season. 



CHERRIES AS BUSHES AND PYRAMIDS ON THE MAHALEB STOCK. 93 

cases must be left longer, and shortened to twelve 
or more buds. 

The most charming of all pyramids are the varieties 
of the Duke and Morello cherries on the Mahaleb ; 
these by summer pinching, as practised for pyramidal 
pears, become in two or three years the most delight- 
ful fruit trees ever seen, for in spring they are perfect 
nosegays of flowers, and in summer clusters of fruit — 
if spared by spring frosts. 

The common Morello cherry on the Mahaleb stock, 
cultivated as a pyramid, forms one of the most prolific 
of trees ; but as birds carry off the fruit when only 
half ripe, each pyramid should have a bag of tiifany 
placed over it, and tied round the stem of the tree at 
bottom. Any garden, however small, may grow 
enough of this useful sort by planting a few pyramids, 
lifting and replanting, or root-pruning them biennially 
and pinching in every shoot to three leaves (as soon as 
it has made five) aU the summer. The Kentish 
cherry, also a most useful culinary sort, may be 
cultivated as a pyramid with great success. A French 
variety grown near Paris, in large quantities, and 
known as the ^' Cerise Aigre Hative," which may be 
Englished by calling it the Early Sour Cherry, is 
a useful kind for the kitchen. In going from Paris 
a year or two ago to Versailles by the '*Pive Droite 
Pailway, I was much struck by seeing in the marliet 
gardens between Suresnes and Puteaux, on the left, 
large plots of dwarf trees, about the size of large 
gooseberry bushes, and some very low trees, all co- 
vered (as they appeared to me from the railway 
carriage) with bright red flowers. I learned, on 
inquiry, that these were cherry bushes — Kterally 
masses of fruit, of the above variety. I find, how- 
ever, that it is not equal to the Kentish in flavour or 
size in England. 

I need scarcely add, that the culture of all the 



A PYRAMIDAL MORELLO CHERRY TREE. 
From a Photograph, August, 1862. 




Fig. 20 



CHERRrES AS BUSHES AND PYRAMIDS ON THE MAHALEB STOCK. 95 

Duke tribe of cherries by closely pincbed-in pyramids, 
biennially removed, or biennially root-pruned, is 
most satisfactory. It is, perhaps, more easily per- 
formed than root pruning, and the trees soon form 
perfect pictures. As far as my experience has gone, 
cherries on the Mahaleb are much more fi-uitful when 
** oft removed ; " the most eligible mode is to remove 
only half the trees in one season, and the remainder 
the following season. I have seen nothing in fruit- 
tree culture more interesting than handsome compact 
pyramids of such sorts of cherries as the May Duke, 
Duchesse de Palluau, Empress Eugenie, and Arch- 
duke. One feels surprise to find that as yet but few 
lovers of gardening know of the existence of such 
trees. 

It will much facilitate the operation on their roots 
if the trees be planted on small mounts. 

In forming plantations of pyramidal and dwarf 
cherries on the Mahaleb stock, it is necessary to 
arrange them with a little care. The two groups, 
those of the habit of the Morello tribe, and those 
of the compact habit of the May Duke, should be 
planted in separate rows. Bigarreau and Heart 
cherries are too short-lived, in many kinds of soil, 
when grafted on this stock — unless double-grafted 
on the Morello cherry — to be recommended. 

The following arrangement will assist the 
planter : — 

SECTION I.— The May Duke Tribe. 



Arch Duke* 
May Duke* 
Royal Duke* 
Jeflfrey's Duke 

SECTION II.— The Morello Tribe 



Belle de Choisy 
Nouvelle Royale 
Empress Eugenie 
Duchesse de Palluau 



Carnation (Coe's late)* 
Kentish 
Late Duke* 
Griotte de Chaux* 



Morello* 
Reine Hortense* 
Belle Ma^nifique 
Planchoury* 



Cherries grafted on the Cerasus Mahaleb are 
eminently adapted for espaliers, or for walls, as 



ye THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

they occupy less space, and are very fertile. They 
may be planted twelve feet apart, whereas espaliers 
on the cherry stock require to be eighteen or twenty 
feet apart. For potting, for forcing, cherries on 
this stock are highly eligible, as they grow slowly 
and bear abundantly.^ 

CHERRIES AS SINGLE YEETICAIi CORDONS. 

The varieties best adapted for this very interesting 
mode of culture are those of the Duke tribe, such as 
the May Duke, Arch Duke, Empress Eugenie, Royal 
Duke, Nouvelle Royale, Duchesse de Palluau, and some 
others. Young pyramidal trees three feet apart 
should be planted in rows, and their side shoots 
pruned in to within two inches of their stems. They 
require the same summer pinching as that recom- 
mended for vertical cordon pears, p. 43. and should 
not be allowed to exceed eight or ten feet in height. 
Nothing can be more charming than these cordon 
cherry trees. I have at this moment trees five 
years old, of the Duke tribe, with their bright ripe fruit 
hanging close to the stem, and shining through the net 
that protects them from the birds. The best of all 
protection, both from birds and wasps, is, however, 
Haythorn's netting, or coarse muslin, formed into a 
narrow bottomless bag, which should be let down 
gently over the tree, so as to leave the leading shoot 
out, and tied at the bottom and top ; Duke cherries 
may thus be preserved till August. I may mention 
here, that with these cherry cordon trees, root- 
pruning or removal is seldom required, their vital 
force is so reduced by continuous pinching of the 

(1) Cherry trees are often infested in summer with the black aphis. The 
best remedy is a mixture made by boiling four ounces of quassia chips in a 
gallon of soft water ten minutes, and dissolving in it as it cools, four 
ounces of soft soap. It should be stirred, and the trees syringed with it 
twice or thrice. The day following they should be syringed with pure 
water. 



BIGARREAU AND HEART CHERRIES AS PYRAMIDS. 97 

yoimg shoots; but if a rich, soil gives too much 
vigour, it may be practised- There are a few kind 
of jdIuiiis, of upright growth, which may also be 
cultivated as vertical cordons. 

The Bigarreau and Heart, or Guigne cherries, are 
too vigorous for this mode of culture when grafted or 
budded, as they generally are, on the common cherry 
stock. The new mode of culture by double grafting, 
i.e., by grafting them on young trees of the common 
Morello cherry that have been grafted on the 
Mahaleb, will make them most prolific cordons. (See 
p. 109.) 

I must add a piece of very necessary advice : aU 
vertical cordon trees, whether pears, apples, cherries, 
or plums, should be supported by a slight iron red, 
about the size of a goose-quill, which should be 
painted ; this should stand six to seven feet above 
the surface, and be inserted ten to twelve inches in 
the ground, and the tree attached loosely to it by two 
or three bands of bheet lead or some soft metal. 

BIGARREAU AND HEART CHERRIES AS PYRAMIDS ON THE 
COMMON CHERRY STOCK. 

Among the mysteries of vegetable physiology, 
there is nothing, perhaps, more interesting than the 
facts discovered by the fruit-cultivator. Many kinds 
of pears grow with great luxuriance when grafted or 
budded on the quince stock, while other kinds, culti- 
vated in the same soil, and budded or grafted with 
equal care, will grow feebly, and die in the course of 
a year or two. 

The Noblesse and Hoyal George peaches form fine 
healthy trees when budded on the Muscle plum stock. 
The Grosse Mignonne and the French Galande die in 
a year or two, if budded on it. The Moor Park 
apricot grows readily and freely on the above-named 
stock. The peach apricot, its French congener, wiU 



dS TBB MINIA.TT)!BE FRUIT GtABDEV. 

not ; why ? The Bigarreau and the Heart cherries 
(or, as the French call them, Gruignes) do not succeed 
fio well on the Cerasus Mahaleb as they do on the 
common cherry ; they grow most rapidly for two or 
three years, and then are apt to become diseased. 

The stock raised from the small black and red wild 
cherries is the proper one for this race, except they 
are double grafted. 

Pyramidal cherry trees may be bought ready-made, 
or formed by purchasing young trees, one year old, 
from the bud, and training them up in the same way 
as directed for pyramidal pears (pp. 5 and 6), with 
this variation, — pears, as is well known, may be 
grown as pyramids successfully, with or without root- 
pruning or biennial removal ; but cherries on common 
cherry stocks will grow so rapidly, in spite of sum- 
mer pinching, that biennial removal is a work of 
necessity. In the course of a few years pyramidal 
cherry trees thus treated become pictures of beauty. 
In France they generally fail, and become lull of 
dead stumps and gum, owing to their trusting en- 
tirely to pruning their trees severely in summer and 
winter, without attending to their roots ; the trees 
thus being full of vigour make strong shoots, only to 
be pinched and cut off. We must " manage these 
things better" in England. 

The mode of operation in removing pyramidal 
cherries is the same as that recommended for pears 
and apples, &c. It will be found, however, that 
more labour is required, for in two years the cherry 
on the common stock, like the apple on the crab, 
makes a vigorous attempt to lay hold of its parent 
earth. The second year the tree may be lifted by 
digging a trench round its stem, one foot from it and 
16 inches deep. The fourth year this trench must be 
18 inches from the stem and 20 inches deep; the 
sixth year it should be 2 feet from the stem and 2 



BIGARREAU AND HEART CHERRIES AS PYRAMIDS. 99 

feet deep. This distance and depth need not be de- 
parted from if the trees are required to be only fair- 
sized pyramids; the stragghng roots beyond this 
circumference should be biennially pruned off with 
the knife. The tree managed thus, will soon be in a 
mature, fruitful state, and its roots a mass of fibres, 
so that when removed it will, like the rhododendron, 
receive only a healthy check. 

Pyramidal Bigarreau and Heart cherries, culti- 
vated after the method above given, may be planted 
in small grass orchards, with pyramidal pears on 
pear stocks, pyramidal apples on crab stocks, and 
pyramidal plums. A charming orchard in miniature 
may thus be formed. Cattle and sheep must, of 
course, be excluded, and a wide fence from three to 
four feet in diameter, round each tree, must be kept 
free from grass and weeds. 

The following varieties form handsome pyramidal 
trees, and bear fruit of the finest quality : — 

Black Tartarian 

Downton 

Elton* 



Bi£?arreau Jaboulay* 
Bohemian Biu^arreau 
Lars^e Biac < Bigarreau* 
Early Black Bigarreau* 
Late' Purple Guig-ne* 
Biiiarreau 
Bigarreau Napoleon* 



Florence* 
Governor Wood* 
Werder's Early Black 



I have thus far given the results of my experience 
in the culture of pyramidal trees. The method is not 
by any means new, for visitDrs to the Continent, for 
these last fifty j^ears, must have often observed the 
numerous pjrramids of France and Belgium. The 
system of annual and biennial root-pruning I must, 
however, claim as original, for I feel assured that in 
our moist climate — too moist for many varieties of 
fruit — such a check is required to keep pyramids that 
are under summer pinching in a healthy, fruitful 
state. The defect in the pyramidal trees of the 
Continental gardeners, is their tendency to an 
enormous production of leaves and shoots, brought 



100 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

on by severe annual pruning of their shoots. The 
climate is probably too dry for root-pruning ; yet I 
cannot help thinking that if it were followed by 
manuring thickly on the surface, and occasional 
watering, it would make their trees prodigiously 
fruitful. 

At the risk of repetition, and writing from my own 
experience, 1 must say that no gardening operation 
can be more agreeable than paying daily attention to 
a plantation ot pyramids. From the end of May to 
the end of July — those beautiful months of our short 
Bummer — there are always shoots to watch, to pinch, 
to direct, fruit to thin, and a host of jjleasant opera- 
tions, so winning to one who loves his garden and 
every tree and plant in it. 

To conclude, 1 may mention that the small Alberge 
apricot, raised from the stone, and producing small 
high-flavoured fruit, and also the Breda apricot, make 
very beautiful pyramids if lifted or planted bien- 
nially. In the southern counties of England, in a 
favourable season, they will ripen their fruit, and 
produce good crops. The large Portugal quince is 
also very prolific as a pyramidal tree. Some trees 
only two years old have borne fine fruit here. This 
is the finest of all the quinces, and in the south of 
Europe it grows to an enormous size. The Medlar 
will also form a handsome and productive pyramid, 
and, "last, but not least" in the estimation of the 
lover of soft fruits, the currant. A near neighbour — 
an ingenious gardf^ner — attaches much value, and 
with reason, to his pyramidal currant trees ; for his 
table is supplied abundantly with their fruit till late 
in autumn. The leading shoots of his trees are 
fastened to iron rods ; they form nice pyramids of 
about five feet in height ; and by the clever con- 
trivance of slipping a bag made of tifiany over every 
tree as soon as the fruit is ripe, fastening it securely 



FILBERTS AND NUTS AS STANDARDS. 101 

to the bottom, wasps, and birds, and flies, and all the 
ills that beset ripe currants are excluded. With aU 
these, summer pinching and root-pruning, or occasional 
removal (excejjt the currant, which does not require 
the latter operation), as directed for pears, are indis- 
pensable ; they soon form very handsome pja-amids, 
and make a ]3leasing variety in the fruit garden. 

FILBERTS AND NUTS AS STANDARDS. 

Filberts, as commonly cultivated, except in the 
Kentish gardens, form straggling bushes, and are 
some years before they commence to bear. To correct 
this, I some ten or more years since had them grafted 
on stems of the hazel-nut raised from Spanish nuts, 
as they were vigorous growers and formed stout 
stems. I have found these grafted trees answer 
admirabh', and come quickly into bearing, forming 
nice garden trees. 

As soon as the nut trees designed for stocks, have 
made stout stems about four feet high, they should 
be grafted at that height with the choice kind of nuts, 
such as the red and white filberts and the Cusford 
nut — an excellent nut. The purple-leaved filbert, 
generally planted as an ornamental shrub, may also 
be grafted ; it gives nuts equal to the common filbert, 
and forms a nice ornamental standard. 

Standard nuts require but little culture; they soon 
form round heads, and bear profusely. Care must be 
taken to destroy all suckers from the stem and root. 

The only pruning required is in winter to thin out 
the crowded shoots, and shorten to half their length 
those that are inclined to be vigorous — that is, tliose 
that are more than nine inches in length. The short 
spray-like shoots must not be shortened, as they are 
the fruit-givers. 

If these standard nuts are planted in rich garden 
soils, they will soon make trees too large for small 



1.02 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 



n 



gardens. If, therefore, they are found to grow too 
vigorously, they should be lifted and replanted 
biennially in November. 

I have mentioned seedling nuts as good for stocks ; 
but I have lately employed a valuable sort, introduced 
from Germany as Corylus arborescens ; this makes 
a beautiful clear stem. 

The Algiers nut, Corylus algerensis, seems also to 
be well adapted for a stock for standards, as it makes 
shoots from six to seven feet in one season. 

FIGS AS HALF STANDAEDS OR BUSHES. 

There is, perhaps, no fruit tree that disappoints 
the amateur fruit grower so much as the fig. If 
planted in the open borders of the garden, it soon 
grows into an enormous fruitless bush or tree, and if 
placed against a wall, unless a very large space can 
be given to it, but little fruit must be expected. 

It may, however, be made eligible for small gar- 
dens, where the climate is sufficiently warm to rijjen 
its fruit, such as the gardens near London, and those 
in the eastern and southern counties. Fruitfulness 
and moderate growth are brought on by the following 
method. Trees should be procured of the An- 
gelique Brown Turkey, White Marseilles and 
Early Yiolet Figs — these are the only kinds that 
bear freely, and ripen their fruit well — such trees 
should be low or half standards, or dwarfs with a 
clear stem (not bushes branching from the ground). 
The former should have a stem three feet high, and 
the latter one from one foot to eighteen inches ; in 
each case the tree should have a nice rounded head. 

Trees thus selected should be planted in a sunny 
situation, and require only the following simple 
mode of treatment. They, we will assume, were 
planted in March or ApriJ. They will make a 
tolerably vigorous growth, and must be pruned 



BIENNIAL REMOVAL OF FRUIT-TREES WITHOUT ROOT PRUNING. 10.3 

by pinching off the top of every shoot as soon as 
it has inad3 six leaves, leaving five. The stem must 
be kept quite clear from young shoots. By the 
autumn nice round-headed trees will be formed, 
and about the end of October they should be taken 
up (their leaves cut off, if they have not fallen) 
and placed in a cellar — no matter if dark, but a light 
dry cellar would be preferable — some earth should 
be placed over their roots, and there they may 
remain till the first week in May, when they should 
be planted out, and the same routine of culture 
followed. They will bear one good crop of fruit in 
a season and ripen it in September. This annual 
removal brings on great sturdiness of growth in the 
tree, and the roots become so fibrous as to hold a 
large quantity of earth, which should not be shaken 
from them when they go into their annual winter 
abode. In the year 1857 I saw fine trees thus 
treated in the garden of the Duke of Altenburg, in 
Central Germany, their stems were as stout as a 
man's leg, and their heads full of fruit; and this 
season, 1865, my fig-trees, taken up in October, 
and placed in the orchard-house during the winter — 
their roots in the soil — gave me a crop of very rich, 
well-ripened fruit. The sorts were the Brown 
Ischia, Brown Turkey, and Brunswick. 

THE BIENNIAL EEMOVAL OF FRUIT-TREES WITHOUT 
BOOT PRUNING. 

For some few years past I have felt a growing 
conviction that peach trees trained against walls in 
the usual manner, without careful root cultivation, 
cannot, in our climate, be kept in a state at all 
healthy or fertile for a series of years. A wall 
covered with healthy peach or nectarine trees of a 
good ripe age is rarely to be seen j failing crops and 



104 THE MINIATURE FRITIT GARDEH. 

"bliglited trees are the rule, healthy and fertile trees 
the exception. The following mode of treating 
peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums on the 
removal system I have found simple and efficacious. 

Supposing a trained tree, of the usual size, to 
have been planted in a border well prepared — 
i.e., stirred to a depth of twenty inches ; it may 
be trained to the wall as usual, and suffered to 
grow two seasons. Towards the end of October, 
or, indeed, any time in November in the second 
'Season, it should be carefully taken up, with all its 
roots intact. If there be two or three stragglers 
— i.e., roots of two or three feet in length— for 
roots are remarkably eccentric, and often, without 
any apparent cause, run away in search of some- 
thing they take a fancy to — cut off one foot or so, 
80 as to make the roots of the tree more snug. 
Then make the hole from which you took your 
tree a little deeper, and fit to receive its roots 
without bending or twisting. If the soil be 
heavy, leaf-mould, or rotten manure, and loam, 
equal parts : if it be light, two-thirds tenacious 
loam, and one-third rotten manure, should form 
the compost; two inches deep of this, placed at 
the bottom of the hole, wiU be enough for the 
roots of the tree to rest on ; and mind they are 
carefully arranged, so as to diverge regularly : 
then add enough of the compost to cover all 
the roots, and fill in with the common soil, so 
as not to cover the surface roots more than two 
inches deep. The surface should be trodden down 
very firmly, so as to be like a path, and then have a 
dressing two inches deep of old tan or decayed litter. 

A tree that has been planted two years will require 
one barrowful of the above compost ; at the end of 
foui' years two barrowfuls ; when six years have 
passed from three to four barrowfuls ; and from four 



BIENNIAL REMOVAL OF FRUIT-TREES WITHOUT ROOT PRUNING. 105 

to six barrowfuls will be enough for a tree from 
twelve to twenty years old — in short, for a full-grown 
tree. A portion of the earth from the border must 
be removed when a large quantity of compost is 
added, to make room for it, so as not to have an 
unsightly mound. In the course of two or three 
removals the roots of the tree will become a mass 
of fibres, and the trees so docile as to be lifted 
without difficulty. 

I have this day (Dec. 12, 1852) removed two plum 
trees that have been planted six years and removed 
twice. Their roots are a mass of fibres, without one 
straggling root; they have been replanted with 
a barrowful of light compost to each tree,^ and 
if I may judge by the enormous quantity of blossom 
buds, they will bear a plentiful crop next season. 
They will receive no unhealthy check, for abun- 
dance of earth adheres to the mass of fibrous roots. 
Now, as peaches, nectarines and apricots, being 
budded on plum stocks, are all on plum roots, they 
will give exactly the same results from the same 
mode of culture, neither the size nor flavour of the 
fruit will be affected, and the trees will always bear 
abundantly, and be healthy and flourishing. 

The plethoric habit of the Moor Park and Peach 
apricots, which so often leads to disease and death, 
will be effectually cured by this simple mode of 
culture, and peaches and nectarines will make 
short annual shoots, which will be always well 
ripened, so that they will be constantly full of 
healthy blossom buds. Some mulch, or old tan, 
two inches in depth, placed on the surface of the 

(1) The soil is rich, and one barrowful I thou£!:ht quite enough. The 
quantity of compost must be resrulated by the wants of the soil, for in rich 
soils, where peaches and nectarines a- e apt to t;row too freely, no compost 
need be added, but the tree merely lifted and replaced. A peach, nectarine 
or apricot tree, under the removal system, that makes annual shoots more 
than fifteen inches in lenorth, is too luxuriant, and will require no compost 
to its roots when replanted. 



106 THE MINIATURE FRriT GARDEN. 

soil — ^wLidi sliould always be trodden down firmly — 
as far as the roots spread during tlie spring and 
smnmer will be of mucli service. 

All trees that are inclined to make very fibrous 
roots, such, as plums, pears on quince stocks, and 
apples on Paradise stocks, may be lifted — i.e., re- 
moved biennially or occasionally, if their growth 
is not too vigourous, as above described — with equal 
or greater facihty than root-pruning them. The 
effect is the same : they make short, well-ripened 
shoots, and bear abundantly. Apples on Paradise 
stocks, cultivated as dwarf bushes or as pyramids, 
if lifted every year, and a shovelful or two of com- 
post given to them, form delightful little trees. ^ 
The most delicate sorts of apples, such as Golden 
Pippins and Nonpareils, may thus be cultivated in 
the most unfavourable soils ; and Poses, more parti- 
cularly Bourbon Poses on short stems, and Hybrid 
Perpetuals, removed annually in the autumn, giving 
to each tree a shovelful of rich compost, and not 
pruning their shoots till April will bloom delightfully 
all the autumn, never droj^ping their leaves towards 
the end of summer, and becoming, as is too often the 
case, blighted and blossomless. 

To conclude, I will, as a guide to the amateur 
owning a small garden, give the following summary : 
— If the soil be very rich, so as to induce the trees 
planted in it to make a growth of eighteen inches in 
one season, they may be removed annually till this 
vigorous growth ceases. If the trees make an annual 
growth only of ten to twelve inches, the trees may be 
removed hienniaUy or occnHionaUy , and I may add, that 
in soils in which trees grow slowly, root-pruning is more 
advantageous, than removal, as less check is given 
to vegetation. 

(1) In moist, retentive soils the fruit-spurs of small trees become 
covered with moss ; somp powdered lime sprinkled over them will destroy it ; 
thia is best done in foggy weather in winter. 



DOUBLE GRAFTING OF FRUIT TREES. 107 



DOUBLE GRAFTING OF FRUIT TREES. 

I have not been able to find tbis mode of culture, 
likely to be so beneficial to fruit gardens in England, 
alluded to by the many authors of works on fruit 
trees ; it may be ''as old as the hills," and have no 
claim to originality, but few so-called new ideas have. 
I can only therefore state how it originated here some 
fifteen or twenty years since. I am not aware that it 
has been practised by the clever fruit tree cultivators 
of France and Belgium ; if so, it has been recently 
copied from English practice, but I never remember 
having seen it carried out. It may be described in a 
very few words. A double-grafted pear tree is formed 
by selecting a variety that grows very freely when 
budded or grafted on the quince, and re-grafting it, 
i.e. grafting the graft with a kind that refuses to 
unite kindly with the quince stock. 

Its history, briefly told, is as follows : — I observed 
when budding and grafting pears on the quince 
stock that some varieties did not grow freely on that 
stock, when budded or grafted ; particularly the 
Gransel's Bergamot and the Autumn Bergamot, the 
Seckle, the Marie Louise, Knight's Monarch, and 
some others. Now, as the first and last mentioned 
jare notorious for their shy bearing qualities, while 
the trees are young, even when root-pruned, or 
frequently removed, I felt anxious to see them 
flourishing on the quince stock, which invariably 
makes pear trees fertile. I found that but few grafts 
of these sorts out of scores would survive on the 
quince, and when they did unite, they were very 
short lived ; this induced me to look narrowly into 
the habits of pear trees on the quince stock, and I 
found that the Beurre d'Amanlis formed a most 
perfect union with the stock, and seemed most 
enduring, for I had seen trees in France at least 



108 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

fifty years old. I t]ierefo:»'e fixed upon this sort 
for my experiment, and had thrifty trees two 
years old from the bud, grafted with Gansel's Ber- 
gamot ; the grafts flourished, and became so prolific 
that, when three or four years old, they each bore 
from three to four dozens of finiit — a most unusual 
thing with that fine variety. This settled the 
question as to the fertility given by double graft- 
ing ; which since this experiment, has become here 
an extensive branch of culture. There are other 
kinds of pears which, from uniting with and growing 
freely on the quince stock, serve well for double 
grafting, such as Prince Albert, Bezi Goubault, and 
Conseiller de la Cour. Prince Albert is a sort well 
adapted for the Monarch, Marie Louise, Prince of 
Wales (Huyshe), Victoria (Huyshe), and British 
Q,ueen ; Beurre d'Amanlis may be used for the Jar- 
gonelle and Bergamots, as may also Bezi Groubault, 
the hardiest pear known. The cultivator has some- 
thing to learn, for there are many pears of the finest 
quality, but of a delicate and infertile habit, that 
may be much improved b}^ double grafti^ig. 

Our garden culture of cherries is, as yet, rude and 
imperfect ; and espaliers of the Bigarreau and Gruigne 
or Heart tribe, are planted and trained along the 
sides of the garden walks, giving abundance of 
shoots and leaves, but very little fruit (which the 
birds appropriate), and in the course of time, give 
out gum, — owing to their having been unmercifully 
pruned, — and die full of years and barren shoots, 
having given much trouble to the gardener. I have 
pointed out how cherries may be cultivated in 
gardens as pyramids, &c., and have alluded to fer- 
tility in the Bigarreau and Heai^ tribe being pro- 
moted by double grafting ; this mode of culture is also 
interesting as leading to success in soils that seem 
unfavourable to cherries under some circumstances. 



DOUBLE GRAFTING OF FRUIT TREES. 109 

Cherries grafted on the Mahaleb are described 
pp. 92 to 97 ; they afi'ect calcareous soils, and, as far 
as I can learn, do not succeed so well in the sandstone 
formations, and where iron abounds in the soil ; in 
such situations double grafted trees should be planted, 
formed in this way, — the common Morello cherry 
should be budded on the Mahaleb stock, and after 
two years it should be grafted with some kind of 
Bigarreau, Heart, or Gruigne cherry ; it will form a 
small or moderate sized tree, and bear abundantly. 
In cultivating cherry trees in soils inimical to their 
well-doing, abundance of chalk or lime rubbish 
should be mixed with the earth to the depth of two 
feet. 

Double grafting of apples is of very inferior im- 
portance as compared with the same operation on 
pears or cherries, for our English Paradise stocks 
give the most perfect health and fertihty in nearly 
all soils. Still there may be some peculiar posi- 
tions where the soils are very light and poor, in 
which strong, robust sorts of the crab stock are re- 
quired to make healthy fruitful trees. In such cases 
it is better to graft such sorts as the Hawthornden, 
Manx Codlin, and Small's Admirable, on thrifty crab 
stocks, and when two years old regraft them with 
choice dessert kinds : all double grafting is best done 
when the first graft is two years old. I have now 
pointed out to a certain extent the advantages of 
double grafting, but much must be left to the intelli- 
gent amateur. It is to be regretted that English 
cidtivators, more particularly nurserymen, have not 
turned their attention to the benefit choice fruit trees 
derive from having the proper kind of stock selected 
for them, or from being double grafted. Mr. George 
Lindley, father of the late Dr. Lindley, seems to have 
turned his attention to fruit tree stocks, more than 
any other nurseryman of his day ; still he knew only 



110 



THB MrsaATTTBE FHTJIT GABBE3C. 



those grown by 
present dav, — a 



the Surrey nnrserymen of the 
imperfect list — for nurserv- 



very 
men, like farmers, move slowly. It is but a lew 
years since that the common fruit-bearing quince, 
raised from layers — a most unfit stock — was sold in 
Surrey for stocks for pears, and Muscle, White Pear 
plum, Brompton, Brussels, and " Commoners" (i.e. 
common plum stocks', are still the plum stocks 
propagated in Surrey for sale ; all except the first 
and the last are of inferior quality and are surpassed 
by the White Magnum Bonum and the Black Damask 
pium. which suit Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, and 
all kinds of plums. 

The double budding of some kinds of peaches 
and nectarines is almost necessary to their well 
doing in some soils, yet this method of culture seems 
to have been neglected by European Nurserymen. 
The truth must be confessed, that nurserymen, as a 
class, have but little taste for pomology : they take to 
flowers and plants eagerly, because they give a quick 
return : and thus Pomona and her gifts are always 
placed in the shade — as to experiments, '-they do not 
pay.'' There are some free growing kinds of apricots 
which, when budded on the plum, and the young 
apricot budded with a peach or nectarine, produc-e 
the most favorable effects on the peach tree, the union 
being perfect and the duration of it much lengthened. 
There are also one or two kinds of plums which, 
being budded on a wild kind of plum, form when 
budded with the peach or nectarine a most favorable 
stock, giving hardiness and fertility to the trees. 
We are still very backward in our knowledge of the 
effects of stocks on fruits : the subject requires much 
time and research, and no rushing to conclusions like 
some of our writers, who write on everything and 
nothing well, only because they have not the necessary 
patience to master a few subjects thoroughly. 



HOW TO PREPAKE A PEACH TREE BORDER IN LIGHT SOIL. Ill 

HOW TO PREPARE A PEACH THEE BOEDEE, IN LIGHT 
SOILS. 

In our soutliern counties, wliere liglit sandy soils 
abound, the difficulty of making peach and nectarine 
trees trained to walls flourish is well known ; in spring 
they are liable to the curl and the attacks of aphides, 
in summer they are infested with the red spider, so 
that the trees are weakened, and rarely give good 
fruit: they seem, indeed, to detest light soils. The 
following method of preparing borders for them in 
such soils may be well known, but I have not seen 
it described by any gardening author. The idea has 
come to me from observing peach trees trained to 
walls, refuse to do well in the light sandy soil forming 
a part of my nursery, except near paths, and to grow 
and do well for years in the stiff tenacious loam form- 
ing another part. My bearing trees in pots, for 
which I use tenacious loam and dung, rammed down 
with a wooden pestle, also bear and flourish almost 
beyond belief ; and so I am induced to recommend, that 
in light soils, the peach tree border should be made as 
follows : — To a wall of moderate height, say nine or 
ten feet, a border six feet wide, and to a wall twelve 
feet high, one eight feet wide should be marked out ; 
if the soil be poor and exhausted by cropping, or if it 
be an old garden, a dressing of rotten dung ^ and 
tenacious loam, or clay, equal parts, five inches 
in thickness, should be spread over the surface of 
the border : it should then be stirred to two feet in 
depth, and the loam and dung well mixed with the 
soil. The trees may be planted during the winter, 
and in March, in dry weather, the border all over 
its surface should be thoroughly rammed down with 
a wooden rammer, so as to make it like a well-trodden 

(1) If the border be new or rich with manure, a dressing of the loam, or 
day only, four inches in thickness, will be sufficient. 



112 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

path ; some light half-rotten manure, say from one 
to two inches in depth, may then be spread over it, 
and the operation is complete. This border must 
never be stirred, except with the hoe, to destroy 
weeds, and, of course, never crojDped : every succeed- 
ing spring, in dry weather, the ramming and dressing 
must be repeated, as the soil is always much loosened 
by frost. If this method be followed, peaches and 
nectarines may be made to flourish in our dry southern 
counties, where they have hitherto brought nothing 
but disappointment. 

The two grand essentials for peach culture are 
stiff loam and a sunny climate. 

A CHEAP METHOD OF PEOTECTING WALL TREES. 

At Twyford Lodge, near East Grinstead, Sussex, 
the seat of E,. Trotter, Esq., is a wall 75 feet long, 
covered with peaches and nectarines, which, for 
several years, had given no fruit ; some years ago, 
the gardener, Mr. Murrell, asked my advice about 
protecting it with glass ; and acting upon it with his 
own adaptation, has succeeded, every season since its 
erection, in securing fine crops of fruit of superior 
flavour. The following is a description of this simple 
structure : — 

At the top of the wall, which is 12 feet high, is 
nailed a plate for the ends of the rafters to rest on ; 
4 feet 6 inches from the wall is a row of posts, 
6 inches by 4 (these should be of oak) 6 feet 
apart, and 3 feet 6 inches in height, from the 
ground ; on these is nailed a plate to receive the 
lower ends of the rafters ; the latter are 8 feet long, 
3 inches by 1^, and 20 inches asunder ; and the glass 
employed is 16 oz. sheet, 20 inches by 12. Every 
fourth square of glass at the top next the wall, is 
fixed into a slight frame of wood, with a hinge at 



STANDARD OE CHARD TREES. 113 

the top of each, and made to open all at once by a 
line running in a wheel; the front is of |^-inch deal 
boards nailed to the posts, one of which, one foot 
wide, near the top is on hinges, forming a drop shut- 
ter the whole length of the front. Now comes the 
management by which red spider, the deadly foe of 
the peach tree, is discomfited ; and let me quote Mr. 
Murrell: — 

' ' All these ventilators, back and front, I leave open 
day and night after May, except in very wet and 
rough weather. The first season I had the red spider 
(it was in the walls), but the fruit was of the highest 
flavour ; the second season the fruit was very fine, 
and the spiders never came, I believe, owing ei:- 
tirely to my syringing the trees twice a day, morning 
and afternoon, and leaving all the ventilators ojien ; 
besides this, the boards have shrunk, so that there 
are wide crevices, and the place is always airy. I 
thank you for your hints about giving plenty of air ; 
the trees are admired by all who see them." 

The roof, it will be seen, is fixed, and the AvhoL' 
structure a fixture; the trees can be pruned and 
nailed under shelter, and a crop of fruit alwayw 
ensured ; h(jw superior, then, is this to all the tempo- 
rary protectors for walls so often recommended ! 

STANDARD ORCHARD TREES. 

Although in this little work I profess to conflno 
myself to the culture of garden fruit trees, I feel that 
a few words; as to my method of planting trees in m 
orchard under grass, may not be out of place, foi 
very frequently a villa residence may have a piece o 
pasture land attached to it favourable to the growl] 
of orcliard trees, and quite necessary as a convenien 
place for the cow or the horse or horses. Tli 
common practice is to open large holes in the tui- 
six feet in diameter, and from two to thi'ee feet deep ; 



114 THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN. 

and in the centre to plant a tree. In ricli deep loamy 
soils, trees often succeed when planted in this manner, 
and as often fail, the hole becoming in wet seasons 
a pond. 

Orchard trees, as a general rule, should be planted 
twenty-four feet apart, row from row, and they are 
for the most part planted twenty-four feet apart in 
the rows, as to stand that distance apart over the 
whole orchard. I now propose that the rows should 
b^ twenty- four feet apart, but the trees twelve feet 
apart in the rows, so as to allow of one-third more 
trees to the acre. Instead of digging large holes, 
slips, six feet wide, should be marked out on the turf, 
so that the centre of each is twenty-four feet apart ; 
each slip should then be trenched, or, as it is often 
called, "double-dug," to a depth of two feet, turning 
the turf to the bottom of the trench and bringing the 
subsoil to the surface. A row of trees should be 
planted in the centre of each slip, twelve feet apart, 
and after the lapse of some fifteen or twenty years 
every alternate tree should be either removed and re- 
planted or grubbed up. As such large standard trees 
would require much care in transplanting, and even 
then probably not succeed, the latter may prove the 
m.ore economic mode. By thus planting more trees 
than required for a permanent orchard, a great 
advantage is reaped, for the temporary trees will, if 
the land is good, bear a large quantity of fruit, and 
amply repay their cost, which is trifling ; for whereas 
ninety-five trees are required to plant one acre, 
twenty-four feet apart, by the above method 142 may 
be planted. I have mentioned from fifteen to twenty 
years as the probable time when the temporary trees 
may be removed ; as this depends entirely upon the 
quality of the soil and the progress they have 
made, a more certain rule to lay down is, that as soon 
as the outside shoots of the trees touch each other the 



DISTANCES FOR PLANTING PYRAMIDAL FRUIT TREES. 115 

temporary trees should be removed. I need scarcely 
write the usual directions as to the trees being fenced 
round if horses and cows are turned into the orcliard 
— that the trees should have stems at least six feet in 
height, and the lower branches should be taken otf 
as soon as they become depressed enough for cattle 
to browse on them. One direction I feel, however, 
bound to give, — a circle from three to four feet in 
diameter round each tree should be kept clear of 
grass and weeds for at least five years from the time 
of planting, after that period grass may be allowed 
to cover all the surface as in old orchards. 

In preparing the slips by trenching, if the sub- 
soil be poor and stony, it should not be brought 
to the surface, but be merely turned over with the 
spade, and some manure mixed with it, keeping 
the turf, — well chopped — and the loose mould on 
the surface. If the soil be wet, drains four feet deep 
should be made twenty-four feet apart, one in the 
centre of the space between each row of trees ; they 
should be made with loose stones, which are far bet- 
ter than pipes for orchards. The bottom of the drain 
should be tilled to the depth of eighteen inches with 
loose stones, and then filled in with the soil of the 
orchard. The soils best adapted for orchard trees 
are, first, loams with a subsoil of limestone ; second, 
loams resting on a dry stony subsoil" ; third, loams 
resting on clay — these should be drained. Light 
sandy loams, with a subsoil of sand, chalk, and 
gravel, are not adapted for standard orchard trees 
unless the staple of loam is from three to four feet 
thick. 

PROPER DISTANCES FOR PLANTING PYRAMIDAL AND 
OTHER FRUIT TREES. 

Pyramidal pear trees and bushes on quince stocks 



116 THE MINIATtJRE FRUIT GARDEN. 

to be cultivated as root-pruned trees, for small 
gardens, four feet apart. 

The same, in larger gardens, not root-pruned, six 
feet apart. 

Pyramidal pear trees on the pear stock, root- 
pruned, six feet apart. 

The same, roots not pruned, eight to ten feet — the 
latter if the soil be very rich. 

Horizontal espalier pear trees on the quince stock, 
for rails or walls, ten feet apart. 

Upright espaliers on the quince stock, for rails or 
walls, four to six feet apart. 

Horizontal espalieis on the pear stock, for rails or 
walls, twenty feet apart. 

Pyramidal plum trees, six feet apart. 

Espalier plum trees, twenty feet apart. 

Pp-amidal and bush apple trees on the Paradise 
stock, root-pruned, for small gardens, three to four 
feet apart. 

The same, roots not pruned, six feet apart. 

Espalier apple trees on the Paradise stock, fifteen 
feet apart. 

The same on the crab stock, twenty feet apart. 

Peaches and nectarines, for walls, fifteen to twenty 
feet apart. 

Apricots, for walls, twenty feet apart. 

Apricots, plums, cherries, and apples, as single 
diagonal cordons, eighteen inches to two feet apart. 

Cherries, as bushes and pyramids on the Mahaleb 
stock, root-pruned, for small gardens, four feet 
apart. 

The same, roots not pruned, six feet apart. 

P^^ramidal cherries, on the common cherry stock, 
six feet apart. 

Espalier cherry trees, for rails or walls, fifteen to 
twenty feet apart. 

Vertical single cordons of apples and pears, eighteen 
inches to two feet apart. 



DISTANCES FOR PLANTING PYRAMIDAL FRUIT TREES. Il7 

Proper distances for trees against dwarf walls, 
annually or biennially removed (see page 37) are for 

Pears on quince stocks, five feet apart. 

Peaches, nectarines, apricots, and plums, five 
feet apart. 

Clierries and apples, five feet apart. 




118 



MINIATUEE FHUIT GARDEN CALEXBAE. 



January. — In mild weather, planting, root-pruning, 
lifting and re-planting may be earned on. ISome 
soils encourage the growth ofmossonthe branches 
of trees. ; hme (see page 106) may be sprinkled on 
them, or they may be painted with lime and soot 
formed into a thin paint with water. 

Fehiiiarij. — If the weather be mild, trees may still 
be planted without fear; the truth is, the modern 
system of growing fruit trees on dwarfing stocks, and 
removing them occasionally, makes them safe to plant 
Very late or very early. 

March. — If the clusters of blossom buds are too 
numerous, they may now be thinned. Suppose there 
are tive on a shoot six inches long, two of them may 
be removed ; and if five are in a cluster, three should 
be cut out ; if seven, four, and so on. This is quite 
necessary with apple trees on the paradise stock and 
pears on the quince stock, as they are often too much 
crowded with blossom buds in clusteis of fiom five to 
ten and upwards ; a small sharp knife should be em- 
ployed in this operation. Towards the middle of the 
month protecting (see pages 21, 44) to retard the 
blossom buds is good practice. Planting of prepared 
or oft-removed trees may still be safely practised. 

April. — Protecting (see page 22) should still be 
attended to. lit would be an innocent and perhaps 
useful experiment to sprinkle on the cluster of blossom 
buds, just on the point of opening, when they are 



CALENDAR. 119 

moist with clew or gentle rain a coat-^say one-eighth 
of an inch thick — of cocoa nut fibre ; this will protect 
them from still hoar frosts. When washed off Ly 
heavy rains it may bo renewed. 

Planting of pears on quince stocks, the buds on the 
point of expansion (see page 51), may be tried as an 
experiment : here they often bear the finest fruit, 

Mdij. — Towards the end, if the season be early 
and the young shoots have made from five to six leaves, 
they may be pinched (see page 9, 12, 41). 

June. — Summer pinching must be strictly attended 
to ; the young fruit in clusters should be thinned, re- 
moving from pears and apples about half their 
number. 

July. — Summer pinching still to be attended to ; 
the very early kinds of pears should be gathered 
before they are quite ripe. 

August. — The leading shoots of the lateral branches 
of i^yramids (see page 9) should now be shortened ; 
and towards the end, early ripening pears — viz., sorts 
that ripen in September and early in October — may 
be gathered, unless the season be late. 

SepU'wiber. — Shortening the shoots if omitted in 
August, may be done ; gathering of early pears 
before fully ripe to be attended to. Towards the 
end gather apples and pears that ripen before 
Christmas. 

October. — Towards the middle of the month 
planting may be commenced ; and if the rain has 
penetrated sufficiently, root-pruning may be done ; 
also lifting and replanting (see page 106). About 
the middle gather late pears. 

November. — Planting, root-pruning, lifting, and 
re-planting may still safely be carried on. 

December. — All the operations of last month may 
still be practised if they have been forgotten or 
neglected. 



120 THE MINIATUKE FRUIT GARDEN. 

Always bear in mind that a vigonrous growing 
tree, that does not bear fruit, requires being lilted 
and re-planted — even annually — till it becomer fruit- 
ful, and, that a tree that bears well and maizes 
annual shoots under twelve inches in lenght, requires 
neither root-pruning nor removal, but merely summer 
pinching of its shoots to about half their length. 




121 



APPENDIX, 



THE PEACH TRELLIS OF THOMAS T^TBITE, ESQ., MAIT'GR 
HOUSE, WEATHERSFIELD, ESSEX. 

In the autumn of the year 1851, Mr. White, 
while walking through the grounds here, happened 
to see my small Kerr's trellis with moveable lights, 
and on his return home the idea occurred to him 
that it might be enlarged, and the principle im- 
proved upon, so as to be able to grow fruit enough 
for a large family. In the autumn of that year, 
he accordingly built a treUis-house of the following 
dimensions: — 

Length 80 feet. 

Width (inside) .... 12 feet. 

Height at back .... 8 feet. 

Height at front . . . .14 inches. 

Eafters (fixed 20 inches apart) . 14 feet long. 

Trellis (15 inches from the glass). 13 feet wide. 

Sunken path in centre . . 2 feet deep. 

The front and back plates both rest on larch poles, 
about four or five feet apart ; a shutter, twelve 
inches wide, on hinges, forms, with a shp of board, 
the front wall. The back wall is made with long 
faggots of brushwood — a double row; the ends 
are boarded uj), and a door is at each end. 
Perhaps no gardening structure was ever built so 
cheaply, and none ever produced such marvellous 
effects. The trees — dwarf and standard trained 
peaches and nectarines, two or three years trained, 



122 APPENDIX. 

twelve of the former and six of the latter — were 
planted in February, 1852 ; and in the season of 1854, 
only the third year of their growth, they bore 5000 
peaches and nectarines. On one tree of the Noblesse 
Peach there were 500 peaches, and the same number 
or more on a tree of Elruge Nectarine. This seemed 
enough to ruin the health of the trees, and so I 
thought when I heard of it ; but when I saw the ex- 
cessive vigour of the trees, I thought Mr. White and 
his gardener not so far wrong in allowing them to 
bear such an enormous crop. The dwarf trees have 
reached to the top of the trellis and covered it 
completely. 

Mr. White was, I believe, offered the sum that the 
house cost him — somewhere about £40 — for his croj) of 
peaches and nectarines in 1K54. The vigour of the 
trees is quite astonishing ; the stems of some of them 
are twelve or more inches in circumference ; they are 
planted inside the front shutter, and laid directly on 
the trellis. The remarkable success of this simple 
structure seems owing entirely to the perfection of its 
ventilation ; the front shutter has been open night and 
day in warm weather, and the air passes gently and 
constantly through its brushwood back wall, so as 
entirely to prevent stagnation. The trees have been 
syringed regularly night and morning, and are in the 
finest possible health. 

As this brushwood wall is unsightly and dangerous 
in some situations, owing to its capability of harbour- 
ing rats and mice, we must now see what can be sub- 
stituted for its perfect ventilating property. Hedges 
to lean-to houses, as I know from experience, are too 
cold to ripen peaches and nectarines, although highly 
favourable to the growth of the trees ; it therefore 
appears to me that the ^Derforated bricks, now largely 
manufactured, could be used with advantage in this 
way. The wall, eight feet in height, should be built 



APPENDIX. 



123 



five feet from tlie ground with, common bricks ; and 
then, three feet up to the top for the plate to rest on, 
with perforated bricks placed ed-cAVise. In very 
cold weather in March, when the trees are m blossom, 
a curtain of calico, or any other convement material, 
mio:ht be arranged so as to cover this space of the 
perforated wall at night, and in May it may be re- 
moved for the summer. This perforated space,^ with 
the front shutter constantly open, will, m my opinion, 
be perfect for a peach trellis, and not unsightly 

It will be seen fron what I have said that Mr. 
White's trellis differs from Mr. Ker's m this way,— 
the roof is fixed, and not of removable lights ; the trees 
are pruned and the fruit is gathered from underneath 
^0 that aUthe operations of culture are performed 
under shelter, and in a climate at all ^^i^f^^^^^'^^^'^^f; 
Since the above was written, Mr. White has had 
his fao'-ot-wall removed, and glass placed at the back 
at a sha^T angle of 30 degrees Under this are trained 
peaches Ld Nectarines, which succeed those under the 
front glass. The effect is excellent ; and the trees 
ripen their fruit well, although the slope is to the 

north-east. ^ ^ „+^,-,« 

The following letter, from a very clever amateur 
fruit cultivator, will, I think, be found interesting 
to those who wish to make the most of a smaU 
garden : — 

*' To Mr. Eivers. 

"Dear Sm,— I have derived much pleasure from 
the cultivation of fruit trees in the different modes 
introduced by you,-as pyramids, bushes and m 
pots under glass ; and you will be glad to hear, as I 
am to teU you, that the pleasure has been greatly en- 
hanced by success. Wishing to have a good many 
fruit trees, and my garden being a small one, I have 
resorted to many contrivances to make the most ol 



124 



APPENDIX. 



my space; and knowing that the subject is one in- 
teresting to you, I venture to give you an account of 
some of them. 

*' About seven years ago, I put down on the east 
and west borders of one of my squares a row of stout 
and straight larch poles, eighteen inches in the 
ground, four feet above it, and three feet apart. 
These were sheeted, on the side next the walk, with 
half-inch boards, on the top of which was pieced a 
rail two inches wide ; stays were fixed against each 
end and against the centre, to prevent shaking by 
the wind ; and all got two coats of paint. The en- 
tire cost of the structure, exclusive of the poles, 
which I happened previously to have, was sixpence 
for each running foot. Against these walls I planted, 
on the side next the walk, dwarf-trained pear trees 
on quince stocks, and some plum trees. I then went 
to the other side of my wall, and planted there as 
many more trees — placing them intermediately be- 
tween those at the opposite side, so that the roots of one 
should not interfere with those of another. I had 
thus on the space usually occiipied by a single line of 
open espaliers, a double number of fruit trees, one 
half of them having an eastern and the other a 
western wall. The second year from planting I was 
rewarded by a nice crop : and although the trees 
were then young, the fruit, had I been disposed to 
sell it, would have realised more then the original 
cost of the walls : and this last year I have had 
against them as fine crops of Eeurre d'Amanlis, 
Thompson's, Gansel's Bergamot (double-grafted on 
the quince), Williams' Bon Chretien, Chaumontel, 
and other pears, as need be desired, and also fair 
crops of greengage, purple gage, and Ivirke's plums. 

"I have not adopted wooden walls along mj^ north 
or south borders, because one side would be useless ; 
but instead of them I nailed cheap calico at the north 



APPENDIX. 125 

side of some of my espalier rai]s Tvhich run east and 
west, thus giving to tlie trees next the walk a southern 
aspect. The calico is secured to the posts and to the 
rail at top by tape, in which numerous tacks are 
driven. When tirst put up it got a good coat of oil 
and black paint, and, with the exception of a few 
small holes made by accident, and which can be 
easily repaired, it is now, in its third year, strong as 
ever, tight as a drum, and having the appearance 
and something of the sound of sheet-iron. I grew 
against those cotton walls this past year as fine crops, 
of Josephine de Malines, Marechal de la Cour, Beurre 
d'Aramberg, and Marie Louise pears, as the most 
ardent horticulturist could desire. 

"There is another mode in which I have culti- 
vated fruit trees ; but it is right to say that the 
idea, although I had not seen it put into practice 
elsewhere, was taken by me from the ' Orchard 
and Fruit-Garden,' by Macintosh. I cut back to 
three or four buds some maiden pear trees grafted 
on the quince, and when they threw out three 
shoots I tied them down, so as to give to each a 
horizontal direction. The following year I placed 
round them eight stakes, about eighteen inches 
from the stem, and equidistant from each other, 
and outside those stakes the branches were trained 
in a spiral form. I transferred some of those to 
the borders of the walk leading to my orchard 
house. The stakes round which the branches are 
trained are painted white, and secured in their 
proper positions by a hoop of round iron fastened 
inside the to^i. The trees look well and bear well. 
A Passe Colmar managed in this way was loaded 
with fruit last year and attractf^d much attention. 
I consider that this plun jiossesses many advan- 
tages. — the trees may be kept near the ground 
and thus have more heat, the air circulates freely 



126 



APPENDIX. 



inside them, the sun shines on every branch during 
some portion of the day, and the fruit, however 
large, is not liable to be blown down. The method 
might be called, not inappropriately, after that 
ancient and useful instrumeij|;, the corkscrew ; 
but if you find the term too homely, let it be en 
tirchoiichon 

" With best wishes for your long life and health, 
both for your own sake and for the interests of 
horticulture, on which you have ah-eady conferred 
so many benefits, 

'* I remain, dear Sir, 

" Yours truly, 

*^ JOSEPH MEADOWS." 

THE GROTHSTD VINEEY. 

The *' Curate's Yinery," described in the tenth 
edition, was contrived by Dr. S. Newington, of 
Ticehurst, — and consisted of a ridg^^ of glass placed 
over a furrow lined with slates, so that the 
bunches of graj)es were suspended in the furrow, 
and in warm seasons ripened well. One objec- 
tion to the furrow was its liability to be filled 
with water in wet weather in low situations 
and heavy soils. I therefore sought to remedy 
this, and one day about the end of June 1860, I 
found myself looking into my original "Curate's 
Yinery," and admiring the vines then in blossom, 
although those within a few 3^ards of it, growing 
in the open air, were scarcely in full leaf. I pic- 
tured to myself the bunches of grapes suspended 
from the vines in the warm, moist atmosphere of 
the trench lined with slates. My thoughts then 
reverted to my boyish, grape-loving days, when in 
an old vineyard planted by my grandfather, I 



128 APPENDIX. 

always looked for some ripe grapes about the end 
of September ; and I vividly remembered that I 
always found the best and ripest bunches with the 
largest berries lying on the ground, and if the 
season were dry and warm, they were free from 
dirt and delicious, and so I gradually travelled in 
thought from bunches of grapes lying on the ground 
to idem lying on slates. 

The idea was new, and I commenced at once to 
put it into practice by building a " Curate's Vinery " 
on a new plan. 

I therefore placed two rows of bricks endwise 
(leaving four inches between each brick for ventila- 
tion) on a nice level piece of sandy ground, and 
then paved between them with large slates ( ' ' duch- 
esses") placed crosswise. I am, however, inclined 
to think that tiles may be j)referable to slates ; 
absorption of heat is greater and radiation slower. 
On the bricks I placed two of the ridges of glass, 
as given in the foregoing figure, each seven feet 
long, and thus formed my vinery, 14 feet in length. 
The vine lies in the centre of the vinery, and is 
pegged down through the spaces between the slates. 
One vine will in the course of two years fill a vinery 
of this length ; but to reap the fruits of my project 
quickly, I planted two vines, one in the centre, the 
other at the north-east end ; for these structures 
should stand north-east and south-west. One of 
these vines, which had been growing in a pot in the 
open air, was just beginning to show its fruit-buds — 
it was quite the last of June — its fruit rij^ened early 
in October, and were fully coloured and good in spite 
of the cloudy cold autumn. My black Hamburgh 
grapes in my ground vineries were fully ripe in 1862 
by the first week in October. I therefore feel well 
assured that grapes lying on a floor of slates such as 
I have described, will ripen fi-om two to three weeks 



APPENDIX. 129r 

earlier than in vineries of this description with a 
furrow, and as early as grapes in a common cold 
vinery. Black Hamburghs, and other kinds of 
grapes not requiring hre heat may thus be grown 
in any small garden at a trifling expense. I am, 
indeed, disposed to hope that the Frontignans, and 
nearly all but the Muscats, may be ripened by this 
method, so intense is the heat of the slated floor on 
a sunny day in July. 

Some persons may think that the heat would be 
scorching, and that the leaves and grapes wonld 
alike become frizzled ; but few gardeners know the 
extreme heat a bunch of grapes can bear. I re- 
member a lady friend who had resided some time at 
Smyrna, telling me that one afternoon at the end 
of summer, when the grapes were ripening, she was 
sitting in her drawing room and admiring some 
large bunches of grapes hanging on a vine which 
was growing against a wall in the full sunshine. 
Knowing the danger of going into the open air 
without a parasol, she rushed out, cut a bunch of 
grapes, and returned to her seat in the shady room. 
The bunch of grapes was so hot that she was 
obliged to shift it from hand to hand. I observed 
in the hot weather we had in July, 1859, one or two 
branches of Muscat grapes nearly touching the 
chimney of the stove in which a fire was kept up 
every morning, gradually turning into raisins. I 
felt some of them when the sun was shining on them, 
they were not burning hot, but next to it. 

I allowed them to dry into raisins, and very 
fine they were, but not better than the finest imported 
from Spain. 

With respect to the superior ripening power of 
slates or tiles placed on the surface of the earth, I 
was much interested in once hearing a travelled 
fi'iend say that when he was at Paros, he observed 



130 APPENDIX. 

many vines trained up the marble roclcs peculiar to 
the island ; and in all cases the grapes lying on the 
surface, which was almost a continuous ma^s of rock, 
were ripe, while those a few feet from it, on the same 
Tine, some of the branches of which were trained up 
the wall-like rocks, were quite green. In telling me 
tin's, he said he was never more impressed with the 
ripening power of the earth's surface. 

I have, in giving the figure and description of the 
ground vinery, adapted for one vine, the width 
of it being 2 feet 6 inches only. If this width 
bo increased to 3 feet 6 inches two vines can be 
trained under the same roof 14 inches apart, and thus 
at a trifling additional cost double produce can be ob- 
tained. 

Cultivators will think of red spider making his 
home in such (for him) a happy, hot j)lace ; but he 
may be made si uncomfortable by keeping flowers of 
sulphur strewed over the slates till near the ripening 
season, that no inconvenience need be apprehended. 
It will be perceived that the ventilation is all lateral, 
and on the same principle as that of my orchard- 
houf^es, nothing can be more perfect. In the figure 
it will be seen I have left a small aperture under the 
apex of the roof for the escape of rarefied air. In 
very hot weather this may be useful, but in my slate- 
floored ground vineries I have not done this, and yet 
the ventilation is perfect. I have not yet ascertained 
in what manner the heated air escapes. The venti- 
lating apertures are all on the surface of the soil, 
and at the same level ; but I suppose it stoops to get 
out, having no other mode of egress. 

DIMEXSIOINrS OF GROIJNt) VINERIES. 

IVo. 1, for a single vine in centre. 

Width at base . . . .30 inches. 

Blope of roof . . . .20 inches. 

Depth in centre 16 inches. 



APPENDIX. 131 

No. '2^, for two vines 14 inches apart. 

Width at base . . . .42 inches. 

Sloop of roof . . . .28 inches. 

Depth in centre . . . .20 inches. 

These dimensions need not be arbitrary, for ground 
vineries of larger dimensions may be made wJh 
every chance of success, and Hamburgh grapes 
grown in Bedfordshire instead of cucumbers ; for 
no part of England can be more favourable to 
grape culture than the fertile, sandy districts of a 
portion of that county. We have heard of f >rty 
acres of cucumbers being grown for pickling, and 
one day we may hear of forty acres of grapes in. 
ground vineries in some favourable locality. To 
form a vinery (p. 127, fig. 21), described ab( vo 
as No. 1, two seven feet lengths are required; 
these I find from experience are better made 
of wood than iron, which is heavy and exjjeu- 
sive ; they are now made three feet wide at base, 
and sold by Mr. J. Eivett, Stratford, Essex, at 
from G5s. to 70s. per dozen, unglazed and un- 
painted. Their size may also be increased to 
3 feet 6 inches, as described under No. 2, but 
they must then be placed on a wall two bricks in 
height, leaving apertures, four or five inches wido 
and six inches deep, for ventilation; thfs increase (;f 
ventilation is absolutely necessary with No. 2. The 
glass used should be 21 oz., as 16 oz. is too sl'ght. 
As the vines in ground vineries often put forth the!r 
young shoots early in May, and are apt to be Injun d 
by a severe May frost, it is good practice to keep 
some refuse hay strewed over the glass when there 
is any chance of frost in that month, or to cover iho 
ridges with mats. 

In gardens where these glass ridge roofs are not 
wanted for vines or fruit tree culture, they will bo 



132 



APPENDIX. 



found most useful. They may be placed on any 
warm border on bricks ; and early j)eas, French 
beans, and many other early vegetables requiring 
protection from spring frosts, be grown under them 
with advantage. For the cultivation of early straw- 
berries they are invaluable, as they not only hasten 
the ripening period, but protect the fruit from heavy 
summer showers, often so injurious to the croj), and 
also from birds. Strawberry plants, to be cultivated 
in ground vineries, should be planted early in autumn 
in narrow beds of two or three rows, the plants close 
toge.h<-r in the rows, so as to take full advantage of 
the glass-covered space. The rows should be 9 
inches apart, and the plants in the row the same dis- 
tance from each other ; the beds should be made 
every season on a fresh piece of rich soil ; and as 
much fruit as can possibly be grown in such a limited 
space must be the aim of the cultivator. If the 
Txdges are devoted to strawberries only, much care 
is required in their culture, the runuers should be 
carefully removed and the glass ridges taken ott' after 
the fruit is gathered, and not replaced till November; 
the plants will require water and surface manure 
during the summer. In all cases the ridges should 
be placed on bricks, with spaces between them. 
Ventilation is then secured ; and even cauliflower 
plants in winter will do well without ths constant at- 
tention to "giving air," so necessary in the old 
garden frame culture. Lettuces, for early salads, 
B Acceed admirably in these structures ; they should be 
planted in October. In gardens that are conhned 
and very warm, I repeat it may be necessary to have 
a small opening left at the top, at a, in the figure, 
just under the ridge, to let out the heated air, and 
two rows of bricks instead of one ; but my vineries 
stand in a very exposed place, and do not require it. 



APPENDIX. 133 

MANAGEMENT OP THE VINES. 

It is now (1868) ten years since ground vineries 
were invented, so that time enough has elapsed to 
know their utility or the converse. My vines are 
now from f^even to nine years old, and as it may 
interest distant readers, I will endeavour to describe 
them : — 

My oldest and finest vine is the Trentham Black ; 
this occupies seven seven-feet lengths, and is 50 
feet long, this put forth a vast number of bunches 
this season, of which about 100 are left to ripen 
their fruit. My second in age is a Black Hamburgh 
— the variety called Belle Bruxelloise in Belgium, it 
is a great bearer and a little earlier than the old sort, 
this runs through four seven-feet lengths, is 
consequently 28 feet long, and is loaded with fruit. 
My third vine is the Buckland Sweetwater, which 
occupies four seven-feet lengths, and is also full of 
fruit. These three vines have never failed in giving 
and ripening nice crops of fruit, ever since they were 
planted : there are many other kinds of grapes 
cultivated here with success under these simple 
structures, but the above are the oldest and best 
established. I may add that it is as yet difficult to 
place a limit to the growth of a vine under a ground 
vinery if the soil be favourable, viz., calcareous sandy 
loam, or even calcareous clay if well drained, I fully 
believe that a planter not too far past his fourth 
decade, may live to see his vine 200 feet long, 
and covered with fruit fi'om end to end. The arti- 
ficial climate created by the glass ridge seems 
so highly favourable to the development of the 
plant. There is a most essential rule to be ob- 
served : — the vine must he covered with its glass ridge 
all the year round, with the exception of a week or 
two in Autumn, 



I'H APPENDIX. 



PLANTING AKD PRUNING VINES FROM POTS. 

Tlie most preferable seasons for planting vines from 
pots are in October and November or in March, the 
latter to be preferred, and if vines can be placed in a 
co'd vinery or under a garden frame till their J^oung 
shoots are two inches long, they had better be planted 
in April, as they seem to start with greater freedom 
wh en their young shoots have commenced to grow. The 
m( de of planting as practised here is sini]!!}' to mark 
out a piece of ground 3 feet square at the end of 
fig. 21 at a, and to dig it 2 feet deep, mixing with 
th3 sail in digging a coat of manure from four to five 
inches thick, placed on the surface before digging ; 
the vine should not be planted under the glass, but 
outside, at the end marked, a, it should at once be 
pegged down with two or three hooked l>egs thrust 
into the earth through the interstices between the 
slates in the centre of the floor. If vines from the 
open ground are selected, they should be planted 
early in March, and cut down to two eyes ; if strong 
vines from pots are j^lanted, they should have their 
roots carefully divided and spread out, the ball of 
earth squeezed between the hands so as to loosen it 
th(jrouglily, and after planting, water should be given 
the earth filled in, and after about ten days the soil 
round the vine may be trodden firmly, the vine from 
a pot if strong and from 7 to 9 feet in length should 
be shortened down to 3 feet, or say, to 11 or 12 buds, 
not counting the buds within 9 inches of the ground, 
everj^ bud wiU show a bunch of fruit, but all but 3 or 
four bunches should be removed and every side shoot 
except one should be shortened as soon as it has 
made say five leaves, the one to be excepted is the 
leading shoot, which if the vine is growing tolerably 
Well, may be suffered even the first season to grow 
from four to five feet before it is stopped, this leader 



APPENDIX. 135 

may require being stopped a second time the first 
season if it is in a vigorous state. In the autiima 
(mind this is the first season) the j^oung leading shoot 
may be cut down to about twelve eyes, or within 
three feet of the old wood, i.e., the shoot left on the 
vine when planted, the latter will be furnished with 
spurs and each of these must be shortened in the 
autumn to two eyes, the time for pruning is towards 
the end of October, after the fruit is gathered and at 
this time only, may the ridges be removed from the 
vine, and remain off for a fortnight : the pruning in 
succeeding years is very simple, 3'ou have merely to 
shorten the leader to three or four feet, or less, and the 
spurs to two eyes annually in October. 

During the winter, if the vineries, are standing in 
an exposed situation, they should be secured from, 
the wind by driving a few stakes down on each side. 

In spring, if the vines put forth their young slioots 
in April, they are apt to be killed by a spring frost, as 
is too often the vines of France ; this can, however, 
be easily averted in ground vineries either by kee})iiig 
constantly their covering of hay or straw on the gUiss 
when the weather is cold, and frost likely, or to C(»ver 
the ridges with the small mats which are so convenient 
and so cheap, whenever the thermometer declines to 
40 at 7 p. m. 

There are still more ills to guard against in ground 
vinery culture, for mice and birds, as rats often do in 
common vineries, attempt to have too large a sliaro 
of the fruit ; they enter by the interstices between tlie 
bricks and devour and spoil many bunches : thrushes 
are particularly vigilant in looking after grapes and 
may be trapped, but both they and mice may be kept 
out by galvanized iron netting six inches wide, 
placed along the whole length of the vineries. 

I have but little to add to my descrijition of th3 
management of ground vineries : then* uses ar<3 



^•^^ APPENDIX. 



endless, for not only are the finest of pears grown 
in them, but peaches, apricots, plums and straw- 
berries may be cultivated with great success, and 
then as winter quarters for bedding plants they are 
exceUent ; for this purpose the bricks should be 
removed in severe weather, and the glass ridges 
thickly covered with straw, they are then perfectly 
frost-2Droof ; in mild weather in winter the ventila- 
ting bricks may be replaced, and the straw removed 
till frost again occurs. 

With respect to the most preferable dimensions 
lor these structures— the size No. 1, 30 inches wide 
at base, will suffice for one vine in the centre for ten 
years or so, but as I perceive my old vines to be a little 
straitened for room, I advise a width of three feet 
wide at the base, and No. 2, for two vines or two 
cordons,^ to three feet ten inches, instead of three 
fcjet six inches. 

In these more roomy structures the vines may be 
trained to stout galvanized iron wires, supported 
with iron rods flattened at top and perforated, so 
that the wire passes easily through; these wires 
should be about one foot from the surface of the 
slates, and the suspended bunches, partially rest- 
ing on them, will ripen admirably, I ought to 
add, that a friend with much gardening experience 
finds his strawberries ripen ten days earlier than 
those in the open air, and his melons, planted on 
new, fresh, fermenting manure, in a trench, are free 
from red spider, and produce fine fruit. It is the 
constant ventilation, night and day, and the heavy 
dew, the result of arrested radiation, that seems to 
bafile this tiresome plague, for although my vines are 
ne^'-er watered or syringed, they are always vigorous 
and /ree from red spider. The most eligible varieties 
of grapes for ground vineries are, the Black Ham- 
bui-gh, Buckland Sweetwater, Eoyal Muscadine, 



APPENDIX. 187 

Early Smyrna Frontignan, Trentliani Black, Early 
Saumur Frontignan, Meurthe Frontignan, and Es- 
perione. 

Any suburban garden ten yards square, if in a 
sunny situation, may have one or two of these vine- 
ries, and the owner or occupier may grow his own black 
Hamburg grapes, known by most of the Londoners 
as "Hothouse grapes." 

CORDON TRAINING. 

By T. Francis Rivers. Extracted from the " Journal of Horticulture, " 
Nos. 356—7. 

The introduction of the system oftraining fruit trees, 
called by the French, cordon training, leads me to 
suppose that a few outlines of descripti(m may not be 
unacceptable. This system of training is remarkable 
for simplicity, and I propose to give the necessary 
directions in as few words as possible. 

The preparation of the ground is so well understood, 
that it is not necessary to say much on this point. 
To form the oblique-cordon orchard, a trench should be 
dug about 2 feet wide, the first spit of soil being 
thrown out as if for a Celery trench ; the under spit 
should then be broken up and left with the top soil, 
a good proportion of well decomposed manure must be 
mixed, and the ground is ready for planting. The trench 
should, if possible, be made about a fortnight before 
planting, in order that the soil may be thoroughly 
pulverised. If there is any deficiency of lime in the soil, 
it is as well to add lime rubbish or chalk. For hori- 
zontal double cordons a trench is not necessary ; holes 
should be dug about 2 feet in diameter, and the soil 
mixed with good compost. The double-cordon trees 
should be from 12 to 15 feet apart ; the horizontal single 
cordons 6 to 8 feet. At this moment there are at 
Saw bridge worth two horizontal double-cordon Peach 



138 APfENDIX. 

trees under a p^ronnd vinery, whicli raeasure 21 feet 
from end to end, and promise, from their remarkable 
vigour, to be models of cordon culture next year, every 
spur being full of strong fruit buds. 

Fig. 1 represents a double horizontal cordon. This 
may be made by cutting down a dwarf maiden tree to 
within four or six buds of the base, the two topmost 
buds of which must be selected to form the cordons. 
The highest on the stem are the most eligible ; but the 
operator can, of course, select the two shoots which are 
the most conve'-.ient for his training wire, and they 
should be as nearly as possible opposite. When 
SuflBciently advanced in growth to be flexible, they 
should be carefully bent down and fastened to short 
sticks, unless the training wires are used. As the 
wliole energies of the tree are directed into these shoots, 
they will make rapid gi'owth, and as they advance 
fresh sticks and fresh tying will be necessary. As any 
lateral or upr-ight shoots are put forth they must be 
stopped at three or four leaves from their bases. The 
first year few of these will be made, but the tree will 
most probably, if there is a favourable growth, be 
studded with fruit buds. In November, or, indeed, any 
month from November to Mar h, the tips of the main 
shoots should be shortened three or four buds from 
the ends, and unless a few lateral shoots have been left, 
which should be removed, the pruning for the first 
year will be accomplished. 

The second year each cordon, or branch, will produce 
many lateral shoots, and as these are successively 
produced they should be pinched. The first pinching 
must be done when the shoot has formed five or six 
leaves, and as a general rule, three leaves from the 
leaflets should be the stopping point. This primary 
shoot will form the bloom buds, and the shoot made 
from the terminal bud must be stopped in the same 



140 APPENDIX. 

maiiTier as the first. Discontinue pincTiing"' after 
August. By this time the cordon will be thickly- 
studded with wood and fruit spurs, to thin out and 
regulate these will form a pleasant winter's morning 
work ; this final pruning must therefore be deferred 
until November. 

The tree after the second year will assume the ap- 
pearance of a cordon — i.e., a thick rope of closely- 
studded shoots, and the pruning must be left to the 
judgement of the operator. Many shoots must be 
removed ; and as the size and strength of the tree 
must regulate the number of fruit-bearing spurs, a 
sufficient number of these being left, the operator 
should prune all others to wood buds, in order to 
produce year by year an alternate succession of 
fruit-bearing wood. 

Fig. 2 is a half-standard double horizontal cordon. 
This is very useful for low walls in gardens ; where 
the border is occupied by flowers or other plants the 
part of the wall exposed to the sun may thus be used. A 
standard cordon with a stem 6 feet high may also be 
used for the top of a wall, the main surface being 
occupied by other trees. A cordon fringe, or cornice, 
will be found exceedingly ornamental, and may be 
carried the entire length of a wall, the standards being 
planted at intervals ot 20 feet or more. 

Many other forms of cordon training will, doubtless, 
be discovered as the system becomes better known. 

Single horizontal cordons {fg. 3), require the same 
pruning as 'the double, but the dwarf maiden tree does 
not absolutely require the cutting-back necessary for 
double cordons. The tree may be planted in a slanting 
position, against the training wire, and the shoot tied 
idown. The first year after planting moat of the buds 
will break a nd produce shoots ; these must be treated 
in iixfi ,mzn.e manner as the double horizontal cordons. 



142 



APPENDIX. 




If a RiTi<>-le corrlon is reqnirerl for a special height, the 
shoot should bo sliorte: eel to the heii^ht required, and 
a single horizontal slioot selected to form the cordon. 

Sino'le oblique (fg 4). cordons may be planted to 
training wires by the sides of walks, or in rows in the 



APPENDIX. 



143 




Fig. 4 

garden devoted to tlieir cultivation. The space given 
up to them will yield an ample and quick return in 
fruit. Tiiey may be planted 1^ feet apart, and if the 
cultivator does not object to wait a year, dwarf maiden 
trees "are the best to plant, as they may be bought 
cheaply. The trees should be planted upright, and the 
shoots, which are gener-ally very flexible, should be 
bent to an angle of about 4o°. It is not necessary for 
the angle to be quite acute ; but, as a general rule, this 
angle may be adopted If the shoots are not flexible 
enough to bend, plant the tree in a slanting position. 

The principle of pruning given for double hori- 
zontal cordons must be followed in the cultivation of 
single oblique cordons. They will the first year after 
planting be found covered with bloom spurs. Single 
obhque cordons in rich and fertile soils will, probably, 
require root-pruning as well as spur-pruuing, and, if 



144 



APPENDIX. 



necessary, tin's sliould be done every secoTid year. 
The tree should not be taken up, but the spade pushed 
dowm at a sufficient distance from the stem to avoid 
injury to the main roots, and the tree gently heaved. 
If a tap root has been made it should be cut. The 
proper time to perform this operation is near the end 
of October, and any time afterwards to the middle or 




Fig. 5 



145 



end of February ; but it is better done in October and 
November, as many fresh roots will be formed after 
the operation, even during what are called the dead 
months of the year. 

Single oblique cordons may be carried to the height 
of 10 or 12 feet; in fact, there is no limit, except the 
will of the planter. A fresh string of wire may be 
added annually as the cordons increase in length. 
They may also be limited to the height of 4 or 5 feet. 

Fig. 5 is from a photograph of an upright trained 
tree, with five vertical cordons springing fi'om a 
common base. Trees may be purchased already 
trained in this form, but the double horizontal cordon 
may at pleasure be changed into this form by 
selecting strong shoots at regular intervals, fastening 
them to stout stakes, and summer-pinching them as 
practised for oblique cordons. No central stem 
should be permitted in an upright trained cordon; 
it will absorb an unfair proportion of the strength 
of the tree. 

Fig. 6 is a fan cordon, and the advantage of the 
simple method of summer-pinching will at once be 
seen. Instead of a wall being perforated all over with 
nails, few only are required to fasten the shoots selected 
for cordons. This form may consist of five, seven, or 
more cordon branches. The symmetry of the tree 
should be the point most strictly attended to, a 
symmetrical tree being more pleasing to the eye than 
one irregularly shaped. The same method of prun- 
ing is required as for oblique cordons. 

Fan cordons can be managed by an unscientific 
gardner, but to produce one well shaped on the usual 
plan requires a skilful and practised hand. It is 
possible that in the northern and westerly districts 
Peach and Nectarine trees will produce too many 
unripened spurs, but probably by attention and strict 



APPENDIX. H7 

thinning this difficulty will be surmounted. Plums, 
Pears, Apples, Apricots, and Cherries are all amen- 
able, and no hesitation need be felt in subjecting them 
to summer-pinching. 

Fig. 7 is a double obhque cordon, formed by cutting 
down the dwarf tree to two buds, and proceeding as for 
oblique cordons. 




Fig. 7 

Fig. 8 represents a compound horizontal cordon. 
This should have a central shoot and branches trained 
from it as nearly opposite as possible. This sys- 
tem has long been used for Pears and Apples, but 
not so generally for stone fruits. It is well adapted 



148 




for Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, Oherries, and 
Plums. All of these may be trained as compound 
horizontal cordons in the colder climate of Yorkshire. 

A very skilful cultivator of fruit, in Yorkshire, has 
trained cordon Peaches and Nectarines with complete 
success, and to counteract the tendency of these fruit 



APPENDIX. 149 

trees to produce much unripened wood, when under 
cordon training he leaves on every horizontal 
branch an upright shoot which he calls an ex- 
liauster. This shoot forms an outlet for the 
superfluous energy of the tree ; and the fruit spurs, 
being deprived of the superabundance of the vital 
fluid, do not break into growth. This theory will 
be found to be very sound practice, and should be 
used wherever there is a tendency on the part of 
the tree to produce many unripened spurs. This 
mode of training for the Pear and Apple is already 
well known ; and when applied to Peach and Nec- 
tarine trees, the only deviation from established prac- 
tice will be to treat every horizontal branch as a cor- 
don, and to practise summer-pinching instead of 
allowing gross upright shoots to be made. 

Fig. 9 is a single vertical cordon in a pot, and if an 
orchard house or glass shed is available these will be 
found very useful and interesting trees. Pear, Apple, 
Cherry, and Plum trees may be potted into 10 or 12 
inch pots, and moved into a glass shed, or, indeed, any 
shed open to the sun, while in bloom, and kept under 
cover until all danger from spring frost is past. They 
should then be removed to a border prepared for 
them — the warmer and more sheltered the bet+.er. 
The pots must be plunged to within 2 or 3 inches of 
the rim, stable litter partly decomposed and spread 
over the pots and the soil ; as the trees will require 
watering, they should be placed near water. One- 
year-old dwarf trees may be bought at a cheap rate 
and potted. The fruit will be produced in the second 
year after potting. The soil for the trees should 
consist of good, strong, calcareous loam mixed with a 
third of its bulk of decomposed manure. An old 
Cucumber or Melon bed may be used ; or, if not con- 
venient, stable manure thrown up and fermented for 



150 



APPENDIX. 




Fig. 9 

some time will answer very well. The soil must in 
all cases be made very firm, and solid in the pot. The 
border or bed for their summer quarters should be 6 
feet wide ; this will take four rows of trees. This 
distance is perhaps the most convenient for pruning 
and watering", but it may be increased or diminished 
at the will of the cultivator. 



APPENDIX. 161 

Under this system trees which appear to be walking 
sticks in the winter will become wonderfully fertile ; 
and if protection in spring can be afforded the crop is 
almost certain. As it is possible and probable that 
during the summer some of the roots will have passed 
through the bottom of the pots into the soil beneath, it 
will be necessary, after the fruit is gathered and the 
trees are at rest, to detach them from their anchorage 
by taking up the pots and cutting off all the roots that 
protrude through the drainage hole of the pot. As 
this operation will break up the summer quarters of 
the trees, there will be no necessity to replace them at 
the distance requisite for their summer cultivation. 
They may be much more closely packed for their 
winter quarters, plunging them as mentioned before, 
and during winter covering the pots thickly with straw 
or stable litter. In this position they may be left 
without any further care or attention until the re- 
turning spring urges them again into fresh activity 
and fruitfulness. 




The following Works by Mr. RIVERS are sold by Messrs. LONGMAN 
& Co., or sent free per post, at the prices quoted, on application to the 
Author, Sa-svbridgeworth, Herts. 



THE BOSE AMATEUR'S GUIDE ; 

Giving the History and Description of the finer kinds of Roses ; with 
Directions for their Culture in the open Air and in Pots. Ninth 
Edition, just published. 45. 



THE ORCHARD-HOUSE ; 

On the Culture of Fruit Trees in Pots under Glass. Thirteenth 
Edition, enlarged and improved. 3s. 6d. 

THE MINIATURE FRUIT GARDEN ; 

On the Culture of Fruit Trees as Pyramids and Bushes. Fifteenth 
Edition, enlarged and improved. 35. 

A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF FRUITS ; 

Carefully compiled and arranged, so as to be a complete Guide to the 
Purchaser of Fruit Trees. Free. 

A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF SELECTED 
ROSES. Free. 



INDEX. 



Page 

Apple —American blight, cure for 65 

As wall trees 83 

Burr knot stock 62 

Buhses on Paradise stock 67 

Bushes for a market garden ..*..,. 69 

Dormant buds, to notch 65 

Double lateral cordon 77 

Doucin stock 61 

In pots 63 

Pomme de Paradis 62 

Pyramid, summer pinching of . .... . 66 

Pyramidal, on crab 85 

Quadruple cordon 78 

Root-pruning of . , 64 

Selection of sorts . • 67, 68 

Summer pinching of bushes 68 

Single lateral cordon 75 

To keep hares from (note) 68 

Vertical Cordon 83 

Apricot— Pyramidal 100 



154 INDEX. 

Page 

Cherry— As bushes 91 

Biennial removal of .... ^ .... 98 

Cure for Aphis (note) 98 

Double-grafting of , . . 97 

On the common stock 97 

On the Mahaleh stock 91 

Pruning of 92 

Pyramidal 95 

Selection of sorts 95, 99 

Summer pinching of 93 

Vertical cordons 96 

Compact pji-amids 11 

Cordon training 137 to 151 

Cun-ant — Pyramidal 100 

Diagonal Single Cordons . 42 

Double-gi-afting of fruit trees . 107 

Dwarf walls, proper distance for trees 36 

Fig, as half-standards and bushes . ..... 102 

Filbert, as standards • ... 101 

Fruit trees— Advantages of root-pruning of .... . 50 

Biennial removal of 103 

Distances to plant 115 

Glass fruit ridge 78 

Ground vinery 126 to 137 

Labels for fruit trees (note) 16 

Market garden bush pear trees 58 

apple ti-ees 69 

Medlar— Pyramidal 100 

Moss on trees, to destroy ... .... (note) 106 

Old fruit trees, root-pruning of 48 

Peach border, how to prepare Ill 



INDEX. 155 

Page 

Peach border, compost for 104 

on dwarf walls 37 

trellis • . . 121 

Pear — As a hedge 45 

As bushes on the quince stock 16 

Biennial root-pruning of wall trees 39 

Budding with fruit buds (note) 7 

Bushes for a market garden 58 

(/orkscrew, training of 136 

Dormant buds, to notch 8 

Double-grafted (note) 29, 107 

Espaliers on quince stocks . . . ... . . 3ft 

For dwarf walls 3 1 

Gathering the fruit 57 

Keeping fruit in a greenhouse 60 

Mature pyramid , . 8 

Number of fruit on , 2 

Ornamental pyramids of 16 

Planting 51 

Proper time to plant 2 

Protecting wall trees 112 

Protectors for 20 

Pruning .... 912 

Pyramid on the pear stock 45 

Quenouille 3 

Root-pruning of, on the pear stock 47 

Root-pruning on quince 12 

Semi-pyramids for walls 28 

Shoi'tening leading shoots 469 

Sorts for bushes 20 

pyramids 15 



15(5 INDEX. 

Page 
Pear — Sorts for upright cordons 29 

Summer pinching 8 

top-dressing 63 

Thinning blossom-buds 2 

To store for winter 59 

Training en fuseau .....-,.. 43 

Under glass 30 

Upright cordon training 24 

Upright cordons for trellises 31 

walls 24, 144 

Wooden walls for 124 

Young pyramid 4 

Plum — As bushes 89 

As cordons - ... 89 

On sloe 88 

Pyramidal 86 

Selection of sorts 88 

Pyramidal fruit trees, summer pinching of 9, 10, 11 

Pyramidal fruit trees, alternate root-pruning of . . . (note) 13 

labels for (note) 16 

planting (note) 51 

Standard orchard trees 113 

Strawberries in ground vinery _ . . . 132 



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